Free Union of Iranian Workers Letter to ILO

The following letter was sent by the Free Union of Iranian Workers to ILO chief, Guy Ryder on the recent arrest of the union leaders:

Honorable Director General of ILO, Mr. Guy Ryder,

Cordially we should inform you

That Jafar Azimzadeh, the head of the stirring committee of the Free Union of Iranian Workers and Jamil Mohammadi, a member of the stirring committee have been arrested at early hours of April 30 in an assault on their homes with their personal belongings, laptops, hard drives and cell phones confiscated. At that same time in an attack at the residence of Parvin Mohammadi, the deputy head of the stirring committee of the Union, all her personal belongings were also confiscated and even the door to her house was broken, but due to her absence, were not able to arrest her. Afterwards, when the coordinators of the forty thousand workers petition had assembled by the Ministry of Labor on International Workers’ Day to protest the set wages for the new year and call for a revision of the state decision on this regard to set the wages based on article 41 of the Labor Law, intelligence and security forces attacked the workers at the Ministry and assaulted and consequently arrested Parvin Mohammadi, Shapour Ehsani Rad, members of the stirring committee of the Free Union of Iranian Workers along with a number of other workers. Now, after five days since the arrest of Jafar Azimzadeh and Jamil Mohammadi, while others arrested have been released, the authorities at Evin prison, indifferent to the follow ups of the families and other members of the Union have said that these workers have to stay in custody for now.

This assault by the intelligence operatives on the workers occurrs at a time when the annual session of the ILO is going to commence in less than a month in which the representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran government attend and also the representatives from ILO are to visit Iran in coming week, one reason being investigation into the situation of the workers in Iran. Each time the Iranian government sends the representatives from the government organization of Labor House to the meetings of ILO and distorts the deplorable conditions of us workers and portrays a different image in this regard. In its place, the government represses the workers and instead of answering to the workers who are asking for increase in wages and an end to the the government breaking law in implementing article 41 of the Labor Law, it arrests the workers and harasses them.

The question is while Mr. Rouhani, the president, declares on May Day that “formation of civic, grass-root organizations and special associations for workers should be free and without any problem. Workers should be able to convey their concerns clearly and easily to authorities and Ministry of Labor through their free organizations and associations.” Then how is it that the workers who had resorted to the Ministry of Labor to convey their concerns to the authorities were dealt with in such a way? Are not these speeches only to confuse the international community including the ILO?

International Workers’ Day is a day that all the workers across the world celebrate and through marches in streets shout their demands and declare their protest against their lack of rights but in Iran, the workers always get arrested, suppressed and attacked.

In Iran, the workers are not allowed their own organizations and those workers who, in order to pursue their demands, embark on forming workers organizations, are confronted with the harshest suppressions and the Iranian government does not pay the slightest respect for workers rights and through false reporting to the international bodies, is trying to prevent us workers voices to reach you.

Free Union of Iranian Workers, through its founding general assembly on April 20, 2007, by workers from different labor quarters, started its functioning under the name “national union of unemployed and expelled workers” and then changed its name to “Free Union of Iranain Workers on its second general assembly on April 20, 2008.

Dear Director General,

While Iran has been one of the first countries joining ILO and signed the first convention in 1957, today after 57 years, Islamic Republic of Iran has refrained from signing a number of the conventions of ILO, among them three basic conventions of ILO (138, 98, 87). The two of the conventions, 87 and 98 on the right to organize and organizing meetings and pursuing collective bargaining. In fact Iranian government not only refrains from signing these conventions but also treats all workers attempting at slightest in this regard, with ruthlessness and harshness. Jafar Azimzadeh and Jalil Mohammadi are case in point.

Now these two members of our union are sitting in jail only because they had wanted to go to the Ministry of Labor and due to their responsibility for forty thousand workers who have signed petition on raising the wages, to once again reiterate workers demands.

Free Union of Iranian Workers by sending this letter to you is asking you due to your position of responsibility, take the issue of violation of the workers rigths into consideration and concerning the innocense of Jafar Azimzadeh and Jamil Mohammadi ask emphatically from the authorities in Iran to release them unconditionally and stop judicial action against them.

Free Union of Iranian Workers
May 4, 2014

http://iranlaborreport.com/?p=2416