My colleague Mehdi Kouhestani, who now works for the Canadian trade union movement, has provided this update on a three day long strike in Iran which demonstrates the struggles trade unionists in Iran have just getting wages paid. Non-payment of wages is a problem in many countries, usually because it’s a get-rich-quick scheme for the…
The international trade union movement continues to deplore the actions of the Iranian government in its heavy handed stance of imprisoning trade unionists on unjust, trumped up charges. One such case is of Mr. Esmail Abdi, a leader of the Tehran Teacher Trade Association, who has been sentenced to a six-year jail term on bogus…
The TUC has supported a letter this 1 May calling on the Iranian government to release two Iranian teacher union leaders and scores of other jailed trade unionists as part of a general call “to adopt a stance compatible with its international obligations in respect of trade unions and human rights. Until this is the case, international…
Despite returning to the international community and the victory for moderates in the Parliamentary elections a month ago, life gets no better for trade unionists in Iran. As UK teacher unions hold their annual conferences this Easter weekend, spare a thought for their opposite numbers in the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association. No chance to boo…
UPDATE – 23 February: Almost immediately this post went live, we heard the depressing news that teachers’ union leader Ismail Abdi (see earlier posts about his case and about Amnesty International designating him a ‘prisoner of conscience’) was sentenced on Monday to six years in prison by branch 15 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court. Meanwhile,…
UPDATE: see below for news on Ali Nejati. Despite the recent thaw in relations between the Iranian regime and western countries, the situation facing trade unionists in the country has worsened alarmingly this month. While we were in Brighton at our annual congress, one trade union leader died in jail in suspicious circumstances, another was…
I blogged about the arrest of Iranian teacher union leader Ismail Abdi a month ago, and the bad news is that he’s still in jail (although no longer in solitary confinement for interrogation). But in the past month, over 12,000 of you have taken the LabourStart action calling on the Iranian regime to set him…