Oil unions press for legislation as demands unmet

BASRA - Unions representing the oil sector and other Iraqi workers are pressing Parliament to pass labor and union laws before their current session ends, measures that would end Saddam Hussein-era imposition on worker rights and go far toward addressing outstanding demands by workers of the state-owned South Oil Company (SOC) .

Public-sector unions were banned under Saddam Hussein and the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority and then subsequent Iraqi governments have specifically refused to discard one of the few remaining legal vestiges of the late dictator.