Iran: TUC protests anti-union repression

HE Mr Morteza Sarmadi
Ambassador
Iranian Embassy
16 Prince's Gate
London SW7 1PT

Dear Mr Ambassador

Charges against Mahmoud Salehi and other serious rights violations in Iran

Further to my letter of 27 January which received no reply, I am writing to you yet again, on behalf of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents working people in Britain, to protest strongly at the charges against Mahmoud Salehi and a series of recent other trade union rights violations in Iran.

The TUC understands that our colleagues Mahmoud Salehi, Mohsen Hakimi and Borhan Divangar were tried for the second time on 4 and 5 April respectively. The hearings for the remaining four of the Saqez seven, Jalal Hosseini, Mohammad Abdipoor, Esmail Khodkam and Hadi Tanoumand were postponed because their files were incomplete.

The TUC is particularly alarmed, as it understands that Mahmoud Salehi has been charged with contacting an ICFTU mission which was visiting Iran on 29 April 2004. According to information received by the ICFTU, to which the TUC belongs, the prosecutor included the meeting with their mission in his reading of the indictments during the first court hearing on 1 February, and repeated it during the second court hearing against Mr. Salehi.

In addition, we understand from the ICFTU that representatives of the workers at the Kurdistan Textile Factory, in Iran’s Kurdistan, have been harassed and brought in for interrogation by the Intelligence Ministry, following the agreement reached on 6 January after a strike. Mr. Shis Amani, the chair of the Workers’ Committee in Support of the Striking Workers and Mr. Hadi Zarei were both threatened and around the 19 January Mr. Amani was accused of having ties with political parties. On 19 January Mr. Farshid Beheshti Zad was threatened and accused on similar grounds.

We have furthermore been alerted to a violent clamp down on workers during a strike at the Fumanat Textile Factory, one of the largest textile factories in Iran. A report by the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA), gave detailed information about a rally against the non-payment of wages attended by over 500 workers from the factory in the Northern Province of Gilan on 22 January 2005. The workers set up a picket line that closed off the main road between the City of Rasht and Fuman. The presence of security forces created tension and they quickly resorted to violence against the workers. They hit workers with clubs injuring many and hospitalising some.

According to the acting manager of the factory, Hekmat Sultanzadeh, about 30 anti-riot police and 10 plain cloth officers attacked workers after receiving orders from their commanding officers. Five workers were injured, three of them severely, and were hospitalised. One of them, Mr. Yaqob Salehi, reported that he was beaten up so badly that his leg was broken. He and other injured workers were eventually forced to cover their hospital costs.

The TUC is also concerned about consistent reports of teachers’ union representatives being arrested and harassed. According to reports of last year from the Islamic Republic News Agency the General Secretary of the Teachers’ Guild Association and a spokesman were arrested on 12 July 2004. At the beginning of the year we received unconfirmed reports of intimidation of striking teachers and further arrests in the northern province of Mazandaran.

Furthermore, we have received reports that on 17 January and the following days nurses in Tehran arranged a number of protest gatherings and sit in strikes at university hospitals and state hospitals demanding, inter alia, better wages and better working conditions. The nurses tried to obtain permission for the protests, but instead the authorities threatened the organisers and tried to intimidate them in order to prevent the protest. University authorities also warned the nurses that they risked being dismissed if they took part in a strike.

The Government of Iran has an obligation to respect core international labour standards by virtue of its membership of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), thus your government should respect the workers’ legitimate right to strike and collective bargaining. The TUC therefore urges you to press your government to ensure that security forces do not attack, threaten or otherwise intimidate striking workers and workers representatives.

I would welcome your views on these matters, along with a reply to my earlier letter of 27 January.

Yours sincerely
Brendan BarberGeneral Secretary