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Palestinian union leader seeks support from U.S. unions
an article by Susan Webb, People's World
Mahmoud Abu Odeh is hoping American trade
unionists will help Palestinian workers achieve
basic rights and a life with dignity. Abu Odeh, a
leader of the Palestine General Federation of
Trade Unions, says it is a question of "human
issues," human needs shared by Americans,
Palestinians and Israelis.
Mahmoud Abu Odeh. Photo by Susan Webb/PW
click on photo to enlarge
Abu Odeh brought this message to the convention of
the Connecticut AFL-CIO last week, where he
received a standing ovation. His visit was
arranged by the Tree of Life Educational Fund, a
Connecticut-based group that organizes cross-
cultural and trans-national programs to promote
peace and social justice.
Abu Odeh, 45, is from Bethlehem in the Israeli-
occupied Palestinian West Bank. He was born in a
village west of Hebron that is now part of Israel.
As an infant he lived in a refugee camp. He got
his start as a union activist working in health
care, became a physical therapist, and later
studied law "because I felt that trade unionists
must have a good understanding of law, especially
labor law." He is a member of the PGFTU executive
committee and secretary of its legal department.
Speaking at the convention and in an interview
Thursday, he described the soul-shattering
conditions endured by Palestinian workers.
Because of the occupation-stifled Palestinian
economy, many Palestinians depend on work in Israel
or the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank
for their livelihood.
Every day, some 40,000 Palestinian workers get up
at 2 a.m. to wait in long lines at Israeli
checkpoints - waiting as many as three to five
hours to show their permits - in order to get to
jobs in Israel where the official pay is higher
than in the West Bank, but where they are further
humiliated and deprived of basic employment
rights.
In Israel, or in the settlements, they work in
construction, janitorial, agricultural and textile
jobs. The employers often pay them less than the
Israeli minimum wage and don't pay them for all
hours worked. Their employers save on taxes by
under-reporting their work to the Israeli Labor
Ministry, thereby making extra profits. Although
these practices are widely known, the Labor
Ministry turns a blind eye to the situation.
Another 35,000 Palestinians are undocumented workers
in Israel or in the settlements. Like undocumented
workers in the U.S., they are subject to severe
abuse.
Working without protection of health and safety
laws, these "illegal" workers are often injured on
the job. Instead of being taken to an Israeli
hospital, they are often dumped on the street, Abu
Odeh said.
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Palestinians who find these jobs are called "lucky people" by other Palestinians because they have a job, he said. "But they are not lucky, they are suffering." The daily stresses, humiliations and hurt these workers suffer take a physical and
psychological toll on them and their families, he said.
A week ago, newspapers reported the death of a 57-year-old Palestinian worker in Tel Aviv, Israel. The undocumented construction laborer, Ihsan Abu-Sitta, had been injured on the job, and his employer simply put him out on the street, where he bled to death.
In other cases, rather than being taken to a nearby Israeli hospital, injured workers are driven to a checkpoint and dumped there to wait for a Palestinian ambulance to pick them up.
"But he's a human," said Abu Odeh. "Any human deserves to be taken to the nearest hospital."
Of a total Palestinian workforce of about 4.29 million, 25 percent - more than 1 million - are unemployed according to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics figures.
Palestinian universities graduate about 30,000 students each year for whom there are no jobs, Abu Odeh said. That leads many educated young people to seek better prospects abroad, a "brain-drain" that further hurts Palestinian economic and social development.
The main problem for Palestinians now, one that affects all areas of life, is the occupation, the union leader said. Living surrounded by Israeli settlements, settlement roads and checkpoints, "Palestine is a very big jail, but every city is a small jail," he said.
Palestinian unions officially have had a relationship with the Histadrut, Israel's labor federation, since the 1993 Oslo accords. Palestinian workers pay dues to the Histadrut. But in practice, Abu Odeh said, the Histadrut is of no help in defending Palestinian workers' basic rights in Israel or easing their plight at the checkpoints. . ...more.
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