To: General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)

Dear Guy Ryder,

Last year was a year full of misery, unemployment, dismissal and temporary and blank-signed contracts for Iranian workers. As a result of the difficult economic situation resulting from the miseries of the global capitalist system, last year came to an end while Iranian workers and wage earners were struggling with the extreme hardship. The livelihood of workers has been constantly diminishing. And finally, the Iranian year 1386 (March 21, 2007 to March 20, 2008) ended while the Iranian workers are still facing prosecution for struggling to create their independent organizations. Some examples are the oppression of members of Sherkate Vahed syndicate and the imprisonment of the president of this syndicate while the syndicate’s secretary is pending for the court order to be carried out in the upcoming days. The workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Company were under pressure during past year and some of them have been interrogated and detained. So far, not a single indication of decrease of oppression has been seen.

During the past years, Iran ’s workers have consistently been facing numerous difficulties and arrests for organizing free May Day events. As you know, one example was the May Day celebration in the city of Saqez in 2004, which ended with the arrest of numerous worker activists. As we speak, Mahmoud Salehi is paying the high price of organizing that event with his poor health condition in prison since last year. Mahmoud Salehi is under intensive pressure for his solidarity messages from prison in support of workers’ rights and other social movements and there is no hope for his release at the end of his prison sentence.

While organizing May Day events has been recognized as a basic right in many countries, the worker activists in Iran are still under hardest pressure for these same reasons. The recent humiliating and offensive whipping sentences against worker activists is another sign of rising pressures to prevent workers from organizing international workers’ day freely.

The two international days of action in support of Iranian workers launched by your organization on August 9, 2007 and March 6, 2008, despite their positive effects, have not yet been successful in stopping the repression of worker activists. Therefore, putting pressure on Iran ’s government should continue in a way that results in suspension of suppression and persecution of labour activists. We, labour activists in Iran, expect that you, as an organization that has the creation of free and independent labour organizations on its agenda – to take necessary measures to compel the Iranian government to stop pressures and repression of the workers and labour activists. Workers in Iran demand, and they should be able to freely strive towards the achievement of these demands, to end sacking and dismissals, to stop the practice of temporary and blank-signed contracts, timely payment of their wages, wage increase according to real inflation rates, equal rights between women and men, prohibition of child labour, and more importantly to create free and independent worker organizations.

*The Collaborative Council of Labour Organizations and Activists

2008-03-19