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Page context: Home > Transport International Magazine > Issue 24 July 2006 > Global solidarity in action > Action day experience
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Action day experience
An action day is always much longer than the normal 24 hours. Unions in Asia/Pacific might kick off the day with their protest actions while their colleagues on the US West Coast may still be watching the afternoon news of the previous day.
It is important to distribute information in advance. We have learned that there are two types of information our affiliates appreciate. One is firm guidance from the ITF on what we expect them to do. The other is a broader set of material that they can “consume” locally. In this case, a chronology of events was downloaded by many affiliates and edited into their publications.
We had to make sure that our affiliates would see any applicable links between the conflict in Iran and their own issues back home. Our Australian colleagues commented: “What is happening in Tehran can take place here if the Howard government pushes through its anti-union legislation.”
On the day of the event, you need to gather information from the affiliates fast and efficiently, and then disseminate it as quickly and accurately as you can. It is like gathering streams of water into one big river. A website and emails can be very useful tools.
Unlike the sections’ action days, where industrial demands are flexibly set and locally determined, the 15 February events had a very clear political objective, which all the unions supported. This sent a powerful message to the Iranian authorities. They had no place to hide. The story was strong enough to stand alone in the media without being confused or lost amid reports of the ongoing dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme. We successfully highlighted a serious violation of trade union rights in a country that was highly sensitive to international diplomacy.
Unions in Japan, Thailand, India, Switzerland and New Zealand met with their diplomatic representatives. Protest rallies took place in the Arab countries including Iraq as well as in Asia/Pacific, Europe and North America. Global Union Federations including PSI, UNI and ICEM supported our action day. Many Iranian community groups joined the trade union actions.
Protest pays off
Within several days, all but seven top leaders were released and by 10 April, only Osanloo remained in prison. An exiled Iranian unionist in Canada said, “When we saw the mass arrests, we feared that this was the end of the only genuine trade union in Iran. However, we were wrong. The international protest by the Global Unions turned the tide. We believe that the Iranian government can no longer ignore the pressure from the international trade union movement.”
However, the company continues to intimidate those who took part in the strike, more beatings and arrests of workers took place during May Day celebrations, and the authorities were still putting pressure on Osanloo to give up his trade union principles as TI went to press.
In addition to these attacks, the Tehran bus workers have now been drawn into the common problems that bus workers around the world share today. Their company has just been corporatised, and the ownership has been handed over from the government to the city of Tehran. New attacks on their existing conditions are now envisaged.
The story of the Tehran bus workers and their struggle for basic trade union rights shows once again our brothers and sisters in the ITF family contributing to and benefiting from global union solidarity. In April 2006, the ITF executive board meeting unanimously approved the union’s affiliation. So the bus workers in Tehran and their genuine trade union will now be joining our fight against the worldwide trends of privatisation and deregulation.
Mac Urata is the secretary of the ITF inland transport section.
Section home:
Issue 24 July 2006
Other pages for Issue 24 July 2006:
working life | Reflections | TI interview | HIV/Aids and transport | German shipping under fire | Still proud to be a docker | Reaching out to informal workers | Regional perspectives | Untapped youth | Lessons in learning | The playful revolutionary | Organising Globally | Comment
Other pages for Global solidarity in action:
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