Iraq’s South Oil Company employees on strike

  BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Hundreds of employees of Iraq ’s state-owned South Iraq Oil Company have gone into strike in Basra city on Monday, demanding the formation of integrity committees to uncover the financial and administrative corruption in the Company, and improvement of their living standards.   “Hundreds of workers and employees in South Iraq Oil Company have gone into strike and demonstrated in their positions in Basra city, demanding the formation of integrity committees, to uncover corruption and account corruptors, as well as demanding the increase of their salaries, in parallel to their colleagues, who signed service contracts with foreign investing companies,” a trade union activist told IraqiNews.com news agency.   He said that the demonstrators have also demanded the building of houses for them by their Company and the distribution of the company’s share of profits among them this year, compared with last year, “taking into consideration that the price of a barrel of oil has exceeded 100 U.S. dollars now.”   Basra , the center of southern Iraq ’s Basra Province , is 590 km to the south of Baghdad . SKH (IT)         674