Message to the 41st Congress of the ITF from the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Comp

Message from the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company

Greetings to all the other members of the transportation industry taking part in the big Congress of ITF and greetings to all the working people.  

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (SWTB) congratulates the 41st Congress of ITF and we hope that this organisation will have more victories in improving the working conditions and the living conditions of all the workers in the transportation industry in the world.  Our Syndicate, one more time, is happy to announce that we support our membership in the ITF and through that the ICFTU and we would like to support the efforts of the President, Mr. Cockroft in all his efforts to secure the freedom of Mansour Osanloo, the President of our Syndicate.  One more time we would like to express our deepest regret in not being able to directly take part in this Congress, but this was something that is out of our power while we are hopeful that we will be allowed and capable of taking part in the future Congresses.  We are also asking for the continuation of our membership in the Federation and also the expansion of the cooperation with ITF.  

At this moment, I would like to ask your permission to give you a short report on the position and the condition of our Syndicate.  The Syndicate of Workers of Tehran Bus Company was founded in 1956 to organise all the workers involved in the transportation inside Tehran and its suburb and it was founded through the municipality of Tehran.  German technicians and experts were also instrumental in the founding of this Syndicate.  During the early years of the founding of the Syndicate, several workers were active and I would like to here bring the name of Joseph Sorhanien, the Armenian driver who was the President of the Syndicate for a long time.  Unfortunately, due to the political environment and pressures of the day, the activities of Syndicate was stopped and it had to wait until 1960s that one more time the Syndicate started its operations.  According to documents, there were four branches to the Syndicate: the drivers syndicate, the co-drivers syndicate, the technical workers syndicate and the ticket sellers syndicate.  Starting with the 1970 up to1980 we were able through our Syndicate to achieve five collective bargaining agreements with the employers and there were also no strikes during this period of 10 years.  

During the time of the Syndicates activities before the Iranian revolution which happened in 1979.  So before the revolution, the Syndicate was always under the pressure of the imperial secret police, also known as Savak.  And these pressures always limited the activities of the Syndicate.  Unfortunately after the revolution the same thing happened and all the Syndicate and the other worker organisations became under the repression and the pressure of the police including our Syndicate.  Most of the leaders went to jail and also the properties of the Syndicate were ruined.  However although the conditions have been very harsh and anti-syndicate, the workers have always showed interest in their Syndicate.

There are some pseudo worker organisations in Iran including the Islamic Workers Council and the Workers House of Islamic Republic of Iran which do not represent, and I would like to repeat, they do not represent the workers in the Iranian working class.  Actually they have been active in cooperating with the, into the repression of the independent workers’ syndicates.  About 10 years ago under these harsh conditions of anti-syndicate environment, the people and persons who have been always active in workers activities started to talk about resuscitating the syndicates.  At the same time these activities started in the transportation industry and therefore a group of the workers in the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company under the leadership of Mr. Mansour Osanloo wrote a letter to the Minister of Labour of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the President and demanded that the Syndicate be re-opened and also steps be taken in securing the benefits for the workers.  This group of syndicate activists were under the surveillance and pressure of the security forces.  Their office had to be closed several times and in April 2005, the Islamic Workers Council and the Workers House of the Islamic Republic of Iran under the protection of police ransacked and attacked our offices.  During this incident Mr. Mansour Osanloo became severely injured and also other workers were physically abused, the office was destroyed and the property was ruined.

After this, several of the activists of the Syndicate were also fired from their positions.  Although the repression and the police pressure was going on and continuing, the workers still showed interest in expanding their Syndicate and they were demanding free elections.  In May 2005, under severe police pressure and security forces surveillance, workers were able to convene their general membership assembly and free elections and they chose their new board of directors and they used the old syndicate centre office in Tehran that belonged to bakers syndicate to start the new activities.  Also many letters were sent to employers and to the bus company demanding the support of giving benefits and needs of the workers.  The differences between the employer and the employees and because the employer did not abide by any of the promises resulted in a strike in August 2005 which was in the form of driving with the lights being on.  This strike led to the arrest and imprisonment of several of the workers including Mr. Mansour Osanloo.  The pressure is always on the Syndicate.  Mansour Osanloo and other workers who were fired from their work were able to return to work after seven months in October 2005 because of the efforts of the Syndicate and the workers and the international support, but still the employer would not abide by its contract and the collective bargaining and the Syndicate was still under the pressure.  During this time the Syndicate published an educational and informative pamphlet which was giving information about the strike and this was printed and distributed in other countries.  After the distribution of this pamphlet brought at five in the morning in December 2005, Mr. Mansour Osanloo and seven other members of the Board of Directors of the Syndicate were arrested in their homes by the members of the security forces.  They were taken to a security prison, they were interrogated and at midnight they were all taken to Evin prison which is the notorious biggest prison in Iran.  The Syndicate got information about this and one more time announced that it is going on strike.  The night before the strike all the people who had been arrested were released except Mr. Mansour Osanloo.  But at the same time at the same night all the members of the Board of Directors and activists were arrested.

Therefore in December 2005, the strike started and this led to the total disruption of transportation and traffic in Tehran.  Police was very active in surveying and surrounding the strikers and at midnight revolutionary guard, Ghalibav (who has recently become the Mayor of city of Tehran) was present and gave promises to strikers about abiding by the collective bargaining and also freeing Mr. Mansour Osanloo.  What happened afterwards was that only the board of directors of the bus company were changed but none of the promises were respected.  After 35 days, Mr. Mansour Osanloo was still in prison and because none of the promises were respected and acted upon another strike was announced.  Again widespread arrests happened and hundreds of leaders and members and non –members, workers were arrested.  Even their families became under pressure.  The pressure and the repression is so severe that the bus companies installations and the houses and the streets around it looked to be under Marshall law.  The people who have been arrested have been barred from basic civil liberties, they have no lawyers, they can be kept from a week to 70 days in prison and some of them have been physically abused and beaten.

Of the hundreds of people who have been arrested, right now 18 of whom including Mr. Mansour Osanloo are in prison and are waiting to be sent to the Revolutionary Courts to face tribunals.  Mr. Mansour Osanloo is still in Evin prison and after six months he has had only one meeting with his lawyer, for the first time recently.  Of the 250 people who were arrested, large majority have been fired after they had been released and have no wages, no benefits and no nothing.  The Minister of Labour is also not doing anything for them and every time that they go there to ask for money or support they just tell them “come back later, come back later”.  The workers who have been laid off and fired from their jobs go from morning from dawn to evening to different places and perhaps government organisations and buildings but that is no use.

In June 2006, workers again went to the Ministry of Labour and asked to meet the Minister.  After several hours, finally the police showed up and there was a meeting in which a high official of the Ministry was present and the police were present. After two hours of discussion, the police got involved and arrested a lot of the people who were present over there.  They were beaten up, they were abused and they were swore at.

This is what is happening right now, ladies and gentlemen, to the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran Suburbs and Bus Company.

We want the freedom of Mr. Mansour Osanloo.
We want the freedom of right to convene and discuss our rights in our Syndicate.  We want all the labourers and workers who have been fired or laid off to come back to their work.  

Ladies and gentlemen, we do not think that we are alone in this struggle and we hope that they will have the cooperation and the support of the International Transportation Federation and the ICFTU.

At the end I would like to thank the Congress for giving us the time and opportunity to bring our conditions to your attention.

Hoping for the peace, justice and freedom and the international solidarity and cooperation of all the workers of the world.

Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company

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