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Activists Worldwide Demand Iran Release Jailed Union Leaders
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| Mansour Onsanloo | |
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| Mahmoud Salehi | |
Trade unionists are protesting today at Iranian embassies around the world demanding that the government of Iran release two union leaders who were arrested for trying to exercise their freedom to form a union.
The protests are part of a worldwide Day of Action to free Mansour Osanloo, president of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Drivers Union (Vahed) and Mahmoud Salehi, a longtime Iranian union activist and member of the Bakery Workers union in Kurdistan. (Take part in the protest by sending a letter or signing a petition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanding that Osanloo be released unharmed immediately.
In Washington, D.C., representatives of the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters are delivering letters to the Iranian Interest Section demanding the release of Osanloo and Salehi. Union members are protesting at Iran’s embassies in more than 30 countries. The protests come one year to the day that Osanloo was released from jail in following a worldwide trade union outcry.
In a letter last month to Ahmadinejad, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney urged Iran to take every possible step to ensure the safety of Mr. Osanloo.
The AFL-CIO is deeply concerned for the safety of Mr. Osanloo. Security forces have mistreated Mr. Osanloo in the past, which gives us reason to believe that they are responsible for this attack. We believe that this attack is directly linked to his trade union activities. As a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) the Islamic Republic of Iran is legally bound to respect its core principles including freedom of association.
On July 10, plainclothes assailants kidnapped Osanloo, who had just returned from the annual meetings of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in London and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in Brussels, where his speeches about the struggles of the Iranian labor movement received standing ovations. For background on the Tehran bus drivers’ struggles, go here, here and here.
David Cockroft, general secretary of the ITF, which organized the Day of Action along with the ITUC, says Mansour is not allowed to see his family or lawyers.
Mansour is being held without charge, without legal representation and without medical attention. When his wife tries to deliver his medicine it is turned away. When his lawyer, his family or his doctor try to visit they’re told Mansour is a spy and ejected. This is deliberate, vindictive punishment of someone for doing nothing more than upholding the simple right to belong to a trade union.
The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center reports Osanloo was getting off a city bus in Tehran on July 10 when an unmarked metallic gray Peugeot that had followed him all day pulled up and blocked the bus. Plainclothes assailants attacked Osanloo, yelling at passengers to stay away and calling Osanloo a “hoodlum and a thug.” Osanloo shouted back that he was the president of the bus drivers union. He was severely beaten and continued to receive beatings even after he was shoved into the Peugeot, a model characteristic of Iran’s intelligence and security forces.
Salehi was arrested on April 9. The Solidarity Center reports that authorities gave him no time to retrieve vital medication before shipping him to a maximum-security prison more than 200 miles away from his home. Despite numerous attempts, his family and attorneys have not been allowed to see him. Repeated requests for his temporary release on medical grounds have been denied. Salehi suffers from chronic kidney disease, and his health is failing rapidly. He has only one functioning kidney and requires dialysis to prevent the other from shutting down. Without treatment, he will die.
Salehi has been constantly persecuted for his union activities, including numerous arrests over nearly three decades. His current arrest stems from his organizing a May Day rally three years ago in the city of Saqez. After Salehi and his fellow organizers, dubbed the Saqez Seven, went on a hunger strike, they were released on bail, and charges were dropped against three of the men
The Iranian government has pursued a cruel campaign of relentless judicial harassment against the remaining four. On February 14, 2005, the ITUC filed formal complaints to the International Labor Organization, condemning the Iranian government’s torture of the Saqez Seven as well as the union activists’ “unfair trial on trumped-up charges.”
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2 Comments
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Salehi is our brother and must be treated as one of the family. His imprisonment and cruelty against him is the same as if we were in his place. The unions are the back bone of a nation so this incident will be the beginning of the end for Iran’s dictatorship.
I can only hope that enough people protest this incident, and there is so much political and economic fallout from this that the Iranian government releases these prisoners, who have done nothing wrong. It is frightening to think that countries will resort to these kinds of atrocities because they are so fearful of Unions. Yet why, when you and I know that Unions are nothing more than valuable protections for workers and employers alike. The Iranian government is misguided, as well as other governments who actively persecute Union members. Yes, it does come down to that, and never has there been more of a need to preserve and protect Unions than it is now, in light of all of the turmoil and conflicts in this world. We must never give up. The right to organize is our freedom and without it, our freedoms falter.