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ITF condemns arrests of bus union committee members in Iran
17 June 2010
The ITF has denounced the reported arrest of yet two further members of the Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed, the Tehran bus workers’ union in Iran.
It is understood that Saeed Torabian and Reza Shahbi, both committee members of the union were arrested last week by Iranian security forces and are being held at an unknown location. It is also believed that around seven other trade unionists have been detained since April 2010. Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi of the Tehran bus workers’ union have both been in prison since 2007.
In a letter dated 10 June to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ITF general secretary David Cockroft said: “We once again reiterate that the carrying out of normal trade union duties is not an arrestable offence and should never be the grounds for the detention of Saeed Torabian, of Mansour Osanloo, or anyone else. We therefore request that you once again intervene in this process, remedy this situation, and also assure the good health and safety of Mansour Osanloo, who remains unjustly imprisoned.”
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.
The ITF is calling on affiliates to send letters of protest to the Iranian government and to organise further activities to show solidarity with Iranian unionists. For more information visit: http://www.justiceforiranianworkers.org/
To view a demonstration on human rights for Iranian workers, which took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the opening of the World Cup football championships, visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/12JuneJoburgNop/a/u/0/W6daHJnqQaI
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