Putting people back to work is tough job
With unemployment over 60% and Iraq's economy in tatters,
the U.S.-led coalition is under pressure to deliver
prosperity along with peace
By Laurie Goering
Tribune foreign correspondent
July 3, 2003
BAGHDAD -- Getting Iraq's paralyzed economy running again
is no easy task in a nation full of state corporations like
Al Fidaa.
During Saddam Hussein's regime, the factory in Baghdad
officially produced shock absorbers for the Iraqi market.
But behind closed doors the state company--like many plants
with double missions--also built shell casings for Iraq's
military.
When the war started, the factory was bombed by coalition
forces. Then looters moved in and hauled away just about
everything.
Now the company's out-of-work employees gather for a few
hours each week "to talk about the problem, share ideas for
new projects," said Jassim Mohammed Al Dulaywi, 38, a
former finance and administrative supervisor at the plant.
"I hope my company will be back. I depend on the salary to
live," he said. But with the factory destroyed, the
government that owned it gone and demand for shell casings
likely to be down in the new Iraq, "I'm not sure it will
happen," he said.
With about 1.5 million former state employees drawing
temporary salaries from the U.S.-led coalition running Iraq
and President Bush vowing to keep American forces there
until the country is stabilized, getting the national
economy on track is a top coalition priority.
But first, there are other problems. On Wednesday, a U.S.
Marine was killed and three others injured while clearing
mines near the city of Karbala in central Iraq, the
military said. Another Marine injured in an attack south of
Baghdad on Tuesday died of his wounds. The latest deaths
raised the number of Americans who have died since the end
of major hostilities two months ago to 67, about a third of
them in combat.
Restoring order is expected to go a long way toward easing
the threat to the occupying Americans and laying the
foundation for a sound Iraqi economy. And the sooner Iraqi
police, judges, soldiers, clerks, administrators, factory
workers and the rest of country's civil service can get
back to work, the sooner coalition troops can think about
going home.
"Achieving our economic objectives in Iraq is central to
achieving our ultimate goal of a stable, unified and
prosperous Iraq," John Taylor, the U.S. undersecretary of
the treasury for international affairs said last month.
No easy task
But rebuilding Iraq's industry will be anything but easy.
Looting has destroyed many factories, and prolonged power
outages have cut output at the few still working. Sabotage
of oil pipelines has slashed production at gasoline
refineries.
Workers at state-owned companies remain resistant to
privatization plans being pushed by U.S. administrators.
Coalition officials are still struggling to identify Baath
Party stalwarts in top industry positions and then they
face the difficult decision of whether to keep them and
their expertise in place or risk putting less-talented but
more politically acceptable managers in charge.
Even for industries still functioning, such as the oil
sector, "there are issues outside our control, especially
security and stability," said Thamir Ghadhban, Iraq's
interim oil minister.
For now, Iraqis without jobs--more than 60 percent of the
population--are getting by any way they can. Some sell soft
drinks or homemade fans of woven palm leaves at the side of
the road. Looters who stole city buses run their own
privatized lines. Wealthier Iraqis are making money
importing cars, satellite dishes and other luxury goods
from Jordan without having to pay import taxes to the
non-existent Iraqi government.
From technology to pharmacy
Uday Qahtan Al Juboori, a 43-year-old former navy officer
who for the past few years had developed sea mine
technology, now works the morning shift in his wife's
pharmacy.
"After Saddam, the work is finished. Everyone's looking for
new work," he said.
But the countrywide shutdown of state industries has
affected even private companies. His wife's pharmacy no
longer receives shipments of subsidized drugs from state
plants. The plants, which used to be run by the Ministry of
Health, have no power, staff or cash to buy raw materials.
Al Juboori's family can now import drugs from Jordan, he
said, but most are too expensive for Iraqis to buy.
"We're all waiting for the new government," said Ikram
Fadhil, his wife.
Right now the American administrators "are moving too
slowly," she said.
Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, said
this week that the coalition will keep up temporary salary
payments to out-of-work state employees "as long as it is
necessary."
The payments vary according to the former salaries of the
recipients, but most range from about $100 to $400 a month.
For the last two weeks, Bremer said, meetings of the
Coalition Provisional Authority running Iraq have focused
on revitalizing the economy, including whether and how to
begin privatizing some Iraqi state-owned industry.
In highly nationalistic Iraq, where government jobs are
still considered the best jobs, "it's a matter of some
sensitivity," he said.
No clear consensus
"I still don't see any consensus view among Iraqis on
this." That means most decisions about how to restart state
industry may be made only when a new government is in
place.
"We have a lot to do in fixing the economy," he admitted.
But it's important to remember, he said, that "only 12
weeks ago the economy [in Iraq] was still a Stalinist
economy."
What is clear is that not all Iraqi state workers will get
their jobs back, and at least some are beginning to adjust
to that reality.
In former plant supervisor Al Dulaywi's family, his oldest
brother has resumed work as a city traffic police officer.
His youngest brother, an auditor in the tax ministry, is
collecting an interim U.S. salary and hopes he will soon be
back at his job.
But Al Dulaywi is considering other options.
He might pool money with friends to import and resell a car
from Jordan. He might open an auto parts store. What he
would love to do is rebuild and revamp his state factory,
"but with no money and no security I think this idea will
fail," he said.
What is important, he said, is that Iraqis like him find
new jobs before U.S. payments run out.
Otherwise, as workers grow increasingly desperate, "I think
there will be robbing and killing for money," he predicted.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), in Baghdad this week as part
of a fact-finding mission for the Senate Armed Services
Committee, agreed.
"In the short term we have to get the economy moving
again," he said.
"If we don't there's a real danger the people of Iraq will
coalesce with forces who are antagonistic to us."
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