Basra Workers

Basra workers of the Gas sector: update

While working in their night shift, two workers of the South Gas Company, Khor Al Zubair area, were stung by poisonous scorpions in June 2007. Both workers had to wait overnight and endure the poison effects because of the lack of a night-time clinic, an ambulance, and an telephone operator which can call the general hospital. Another worker, Gtafeh Nissan Telfah, had died two years ago from a heart attack for the same reason, i.e. the non-availability of an ambulance.

Two Gas workers from Khor Al Zubair were poisoned by gases of propane and butane. As a result, they suffocated and fainted because of the failure of the workplace to provide sufficient precautions.
In the fluid isolation/ Natural Gas Liquids site (NGL) in the North Rumaila field, the workers are assigned to hazardous tasks without adequate precaution for workplace safety; they clean the "Vessels" in ways which cause burns and injuries to them.

The South Gas Company workers demand to be paid the remaining annual benefits (20% of the total amount), similar to the other oil sectors' workers.
Firemen of the oil sector do not receive danger benefits although they frequently put out fires of the oil and the non-oil sectors. The Old Factory does not have a fire-fighting vehicle or any fire extinguishing equipment in Khor Al Zubair although the reservoirs of the factory are full of gas. Consequently, any accident of fire will put the lives of the employees under danger and will destroy the factory.

The gas sector workers are subject to inhaling Ethylene, a hazardous gas which results in many ailments if inhaled for long periods. Many were harmed as a result of inhaling this gas during the fire accident of the operating units in the petrochemicals last February.

Report was prepared by: Faisal Kassim and Sabah Dnaiyef Shahan.

Gas Workers' Union Committee – Basrah
Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq