Iranian Union Leader Released from Jail

Cathy Feingold at the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center tells us that Mansour Osanloo, president of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Drivers Union (Vahed), was released again from jail this week.

His release after a month of solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison follows a tremendous solidarity campaign by union members in the United States and around the world.

In a statement on behalf of Osanloo, his family and Vahed members, Vahed Vice President Ebrahim Madadi thanked the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Transportation Federation (ITF) and their affiliates for their strong support. The AFL-CIO is one of more than 300 members of the ITUC, which represents 168 million workers worldwide.

Although the 17,000-member Vahed is an ITF affiliate, the Iranian government refuses to officially recognize the union. While Osanloo’s release is great news, Vahed union members continue to be harassed and scrutinized. ITF General Secretary David Cockroft states:

Fundamental trade union rights have to be respected in Iran, and we await similar positive news concerning Mansour Osanloo’s trade union colleagues, some of whom have been sacked and all of whom have been denied the right to be represented by the union of their choice.

Osanloo was imprisoned—for the second time—on ill-defined charges, but his only true crime was seeking a living wage and better working conditions for thousands of Tehran’s bus drivers. Before releasing Osanloo, authorities asked him to resign his union presidency, but he refused to do so.

Throughout both imprisonments, Iranian security agents subjected him to terror campaigns and constantly harassed his family and friends. 

Vahed has become a symbol for Iran’s workers, who have no power to form unions or bargain collectively. The union demands that the Iranian government follow the International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions on the Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining. It also is engaging in day-to-day organizing and educational activities for its members—fighting privatization of Tehran’s public transportation sector, preventing employers from cutting drivers’ pay and benefits, ensuring reasonable hours and safe working conditions and protecting jobs. 

Osanloo and members of the Vahed executive committee were initially arrested during a union meeting Dec. 22, 2005. On Feb. 15, thousands of union members and human rights activists in the United States and worldwide, including Solidarity Center staff and its partners, joined an International Day of Action on Iran to demand Osanloo’s release and respect for Iranian bus drivers’ worker rights.

Mike Golash, president of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, demanded that Iran free hundreds of imprisoned Iranian bus drivers who were arrested after police brutally cracked down on a planned Jan. 28 strike.
 
On May 1, International Labor Day, the Vahed union joined the ITF, whose 624 affiliates represent 4.5 million transport workers in 142 countries. On Aug. 9, only days after the ITF and the ITUC filed a joint complaint to the ILO, Osanloo was released for the first time. Less than three months later, government security agents attacked him and forced him into a waiting van, which took him back to prison.

In a Nov. 20 letter to Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Iran has an obligation to protect worker rights: 

As a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO), your  government has an obligation to conform to the core ILO conventions by reinstating dismissed workers, recognizing the Sherkat-e-Vahed union, permitting a collective bargaining agreement and permitting freedom of association and trade union rights. We also ask that you safeguard other Sherkat-e-Vahed workers from possible arrests.

For more information, visit the Solidarity Center website here.

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