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World day of action to free Iranian union leader
27 July 2007
Trade unions are planning a worldwide day of action in two weeks time (9 August) in support of an Iranian trade union leader Mansour Osanloo, who is still being held without charge in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison after being assaulted and kidnapped by unidentified gunmen. The imprisonment is the latest in a two year government campaign against Osanloo and his Tehran bus drivers’ union that has seen meetings brutally broken up and he and his supporters repeatedly jailed and beaten.
The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) has called the action day as the latest tactic in its campaign to put pressure on the Iranian Government to treat Osanloo and his union in the way, it says, that decency, Iranian and international law demands. August 9th was chosen because it is the anniversary of his release from jail in 2006 following worldwide trade union protests.
On the day a vigil will be held outside the Iranian Embassy in London, where a petition demanding Osanloo’s freedom will be delivered. Protests will take place in Iran and further demonstrations will be held at other Iranian embassies and consulates around the world. More details, including times, will be included in a press release nearer to the event.
Just weeks after returning from a visit to the ITF in London and meetings with union leaders in Brussels, Osanloo, 47, was snatched from a bus on 10 July. The other passengers stated that he was beaten severely, and his attackers continued to assault him as they drove away. Despite desperate pleas by his family and friends the authorities denied all knowledge of the attack and his whereabouts for two days, after which Revolutionary Court Judge Saeed Mortazavi finally changed his story and admitted that he was being held without charge in Evin prison. Since then he has been denied legal and medical visits, despite problems with an eye wound he suffered in a previous attack.
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “After years of being treated like a punchbag Mansour’s health is not what it should be, which gives us even more reason to get him released as soon as possible. This action day is another of the ways we aim to achieve that.”
He continued: I’d like to say that I’m surprised that someone who is simply abiding by his human right to join a trade union should be so violently prevented from doing so, but sadly I can’t. Once again the Iranian government has tried to hide its attempts to grind down the free expression of the very human rights that they have pledged to uphold. Well, we’ve got news for them. Every attack they make on Mansour Osanloo and his fellow trade unionists just reveals even more clearly what they’re up to. Every unjust move they make is matched by a rising chorus of international condemnation.”
Immediately after Osanloo’s abduction the international trade union movement mobilised to support him and firstly to force the Iranian authorities to acknowledge that it was their agents who – acting on orders or not – had taken him, and then to secure his release. By the first day the ITF and ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) had written to President Ahmadinejad, protesting against the attack; asked ILO (International Labour Organization) Director General Juan Somavia to help free Osanloo; added this latest attack to their complaint to the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association against the Government of Iran; and set up a campaign to bring worldwide backing for Osanloo’s release (see http://www.itfglobal.org/solidarity/osanloo2.cfm )
Osanloo has fought back against a prolonged Iranian government campaign of arrests and violence and has been snatched and gravely assaulted before by both police and men from the Iranian security services. The leader of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), he was brought to Britain last month by the ITF to address trade unionists from around the world about the union’s struggle. He then travelled to Brussels to meet the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) and other world trade union leaders. (See http://www.itfglobal.org/urban-transport/tehranbuses.cfm for a history of the union’s struggles or ITF press releases at http://www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm ). The 9 August action day, which is also being backed by the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) will also support Mahmoud Salehi, co founder of the Saqez Bakery Workers’ Association and the Coordinating Committee to Form Workers’ Organisations, who has also been jailed for asserting the right to undertake the legal trade union activities guaranteed by Iran’s signing of ILO (International Labour Organization) conventions.
ENDS
For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk
International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: www.itfglobal.org
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