Railway Workers Union (Iraq)
labour union in Iraq, established 1944
The Railway Workers Union (Arabic: نقابة السكك الحديدية) was a trade union of railway employees in Iraq. The union was dominated by communists, and was suppressed by the government in 1945.
Foundation
In August 1944, diplomatic relations were established between Iraq and the Soviet Union. The government issued a permit for the railway workers to form a union of their own on September 7, 1944. The founding conference of the union was held in November 1944. Some 10,000 workers took part in the event. Ali Shukr, a Central Committee member of the Iraqi Communist Party, was elected chairman of the Railway Workers Union.
April 1945 strike
Between April 15 and 30, 1945 the railway workers organized a major strike. The strike erupted in Baghdad, but spread to other cities. The Railway Workers Union had demanded a 30 to 40% salary increase, a demand that was rejected by the British-managed Railways Directorate.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Railway Workers Union (Iraq)” as labour union in Iraq, established 1944. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 7, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q16968184. VIAF identifies the subject as 168318404. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945 and 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “Railway Workers Union (Iraq)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.