“To obtain their basic rights, the Iranian workers have no other recourse but to seek for international working class solidarity” – Alex Gordon, President, National Union of Rail Maritime and Transport Workers, UK at the annual general meeting, 27 – 30 July 2010, Aberdeen.
Copyright - Amnesty
Delegates at ITUC Congress in Vancouver take part in Amnesty Canada and Amnesty UK action in defense of jailed Iranian trade unionists, 25 June 2010.
EI has once again raised its concerns about the harassment and intimidation of teacher trade unionists with the Iranian authorities.
Pressure on activists belonging to the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (ITTA), who are affiliated to EI’s member organisation, the Coordinating Council of ITTAs, has intensified over recent months and the group has been prevented from holding meetings.
EI has written to the Iranian authorities calling on the government to stop state pressure on trade unions and to release detained teacher activists immediately, as well as to formally acknowledge the legitimacy of the Coordinating Council of ITTAs.
EI has also raised particular concern about the death penalty that has been pronounced against Abdolreza Ghanbari, and the continuing detention of several other teacher unionists.
Abdolreza Ghanbari, a school teacher in Pakdasht Varamin and online professor of Payam e Nour University, was arrested at his home in Pakdasht on 4 January, 2010. He was charged with Moharebeh (enmity towards God) for receiving unsolicited emails from an armed opposition group to which he does not belong. In detention at the notorious Evin Prison, Ghanbari has been interrogated for 25 days in a row under duress. In 2007, Abdolreza was detained for 120 days and sentenced to a six-month suspension from teaching and exiled from Sari to Pakdasht. His recent death sentence has been confirmed by Tehran’s Appeal Court, Branch 36.
Esmael Abdi, a school teacher member of the Iranian Teachers’ Association of Tehran, was arrested on 19 May, 2010. Four officials from the Ministry of Intelligence searched his house and took his computer, notebook and some literature. They cut the wire of his landline phone and told Esmael’s partner to keep his detention a secret. He remains in detention in an unknown location.
According to his relatives, his arrest is the consequence of an interview he gave to foreign media on National Teachers’ Day.
Rasoul Bodaghi is another member of the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association of Tehran who is in detention. He was transferred from the Evin Prison to Rajaieshahr Prison in Karaj on 10 May, 2010, and was reportedly beaten very severely by two prison officers on 26 May, 2010. This experience has provoked a dramatic deterioration in his health, and there is still no report of when his trial might take place.
Hashem Khastar is a retired teacher suffering from kidney disease, who has already served more than a third of his prison sentence, but he is still not allowed to go on leave and visit his family. This alone is against the governing rules for prisoners in Iran.
EI and its member organisations are also outraged at the way in which the Iranian judiciary managed the case of the late Iranian teacher unionist, Farzad Kamangar, who was summarily executed on May 9, 2010, without a fair trial and before the Supreme Court had even begun to review his case. Farzad’s execution also took place without his family or lawyer being informed. EI continues to demand that Farzad’s body is returned to his family and that an independent investigation is carried out into the procedural irregularities and allegations of torture that were inflicted upon Farzad during his detention. [2010-06-14] 17:50:07
Source: http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1279&theme=rights&country=iran
20 June 2010
We send plentiful greetings to our friends and colleagues participating in the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Assembly.
Friends, we are extremely distressed that no representative of the Iranian labour movement is present among you to demonstrate the solidarity of Iranian workers with your General Assembly, and to inform you of the day-to-day issues of today*s Iranian labour movement.
Nevertheless, know that despite the distance between us, we see ourselves by your side and wish for a most productive and victorious week for you and for the global labour movement.
Comrades and colleagues, for nearly a decade now, you have come to our aid with your strong support, and have been intimately involved in our problems and struggles. We nevertheless wish to inform you that the Iranian labour movement is enduring one of its darkest times ever.
Throughout its lifespan, the Iranian government has not only completely disregarded its commitments to international labour conventions and basic workers rights, but in light of the political situation in Iran during the past year, the government has paved the way for fiercely attacking even the most basic workers rights, and to strike against the few existing Iranian labor organizations with ever increasing intensity.
Our colleagues Mr. Saeed Torabian and Mr. Reza Shahabi were captured at home and at their workplace, in front of their families, in broad daylight and without presentation of any warrants, on completely fallacious charges. It has been two weeks that their families and colleagues have absolutely no information about their fate or condition.
Also within the past two weeks, two other labor activists, Mr. Alireza Akhavan and Mr. Behnam Ibrahim, were captured and transported to an unknown location. Messrs. Mansour Osanloo and Ibrahim Madadi have spent the last three years in prison because they organized a labour union.
Not only have they had no respite or liberty throughout these past three years, but they have also been denied medical attention while being detained in the most dangerous and deplorable prisons.
Members of the Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Factory Syndicate have not only been thrown in prison for labour related activity, but have also been fired from their jobs. The execution of Mr. Farzad Kamangar, and the other baseless detainments, sentences of prison time and whip lashing for the very few Iranian labour union activists, has created extremely troublesome conditions for them, and for any potential basic labour union activities. Not only educators themselves, but their relatives and loved ones have suffered as a result of these problems. Many of them are in prison or on their way to prison.
Friends and colleagues, this year we witnessed in the ILO*s annual meeting that Iran*s government was not only not reproached more than previous years, but actually received a *bonus* by being removed from the ILO violators list. We know very well that you make every possible effort at your disposal to see that the Iranian labour movement is not sacrificed to governmental political and economic turbulence.
We hereby recognize your current efforts in support of the Iranian labour movement with utmost gratitude, but respectfully request and expect that you continue your support with redoubled intensity and effort. We wish for you to take greater steps towards driving back the horrendous conditions imposed upon Iranian workers.
To obtain their basic rights, workers have no other recourse but the expression of class solidarity. More so than ever before, we reaffirm our reliance on international workers solidarity. We hereby shake your hand in concordance, and send our warmest regards and our greatest solidarity to you.
Iran,
Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Vahed)
Syndicate of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugarcane Company
Union of Free Workers of Iran Committee for Re-Certification of the Mechanics and Steelworkers
Syndicate Association of Electrical and Steel Workers Kermanshah
Read the full text: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/4619
Protest in Oslo - 12 June
On 11 June, national secretary of the ITF-affiliated Maritime Union of Australia Paddy Crumlin also wrote to Ahmadinejad, stating: “In Australia we have visited some of your maritime fleet trading as the ‘Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL Group)’.
“Our members along with the Australian trade union movement find it increasingly difficult to justify any level of cooperation with these ships or with trade to Iran in general.”
Unions have carried out protest actions in response to this latest attack on workers’ rights in Iran, among them a joint demonstration in Jakarta, Indonesia, by the seafarers’ and teachers’ unions as well as a rally in Oslo, Norway.
Read the full text: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/4619
Saeed Torabian and Reza Shahabi, leading members of a trade union which is not recognized by the authorities in Iran, have been arrested and are held at unknown locations. Their arrests may be connected to the anniversary of the disputed 2009 presidential election, which fell on 12 June. The two detained men are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Read more…
Saeed Torabian, a spokesperson for the Tehran bus drivers’ union (the Vahed Syndicate), was arrested yesterday by Iranian security forces and is being held incommunicado, whereabouts unknown. Read more…
ITF-affiliated KPI and teachers unions in Indonesia organised protest rallies in Jakarta today against the continued attacks by the Iranian government on workers rights and in particular to highlight their protest over the recent execution of Farzad Kamangar and continued oppression towards Mansour Osanloo.
The ITF has reacted with shock and anger to reports that Mansour Osanloo could be being violently abused in Rajai Shahr prison. Read more…
Protest to the Iranian government
