Workers strike and demonstrate in Basra

Workers of Iraq’s South Refineries Company in Basra are set to strike Wednesday after the failure of negotiations on calls for a shakeup in the SRC’s management and an increase in salaries.

However, some union members tried to call off the strike amid fears that security forces were gathering at the SRC, and that striking workers would be arrested if they demonstrated.

This is the latest in a series of incidents of worker unrest in Iraq’s second largest refinery. Iraq’s oil unions, which …