The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) earlier this week announced that it had filed a complaint along with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions to the International Labor Organization concerning the ongoing use of “terror tactics” against an Iranian union representing bus workers.The ITF issued a statement that is posted below and also is available on the federation’s web site HERE
A PDF version of the full complaint (it is eight pages) is available HERE
Repression in Iran condemned in International Labor Organization complaint
26 July 2006
The ITF and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) yesterday made a formal complaint to the International Labor Organization (ILO) over the continued use of terror tactics against a bus workers’ union in Iran.
The union bodies submitted a dossier detailing continuing repression against the ITF-affiliated Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed). This not only flouts all norms of justice and human rights but also contravenes the principles to which the Islamic Republic of Iran signed up when it joined the ILO.
Since it was set up as an independent trade union in 2005, the union has been subjected to an ongoing campaign of harassment, arrests and physical attacks. These include the continuing detention of the union’s President Mansoor Osanloo; his poor state of health is now a major concern.
Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the ICFTU, commented: "The Iranian government is mistaken if it believes that a continued campaign of terrorizing the Sherkat-e Vahed workers will stifle either their resolve to fight for the fundamental right to belong to a union of their choice, or the international trade union movement's resolve to support them in that fight. We will continue raising the plight of these workers with all the relevant authorities and applying pressure wherever possible to convince the Iranian government to respect workers' rights."
Mac Urata, Secretary of the ITF's Inland Transport Section, said: "This union has become a beacon both inside Iran and beyond. Maybe that's why the government and its puppet Workers’ House organizations are so determined to stamp it out. Only they're forgetting that the eyes of workers around the world are now on them, and we intend to keep exposing their terror tactics until Mansoor Osanloo is released and workers are allowed the freedom of assembly that Iran, through its very membership of the ILO, is sworn to uphold."
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