26 July 2007

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Mansour Osanloo speaking at the ITUC General Council meeting in Belgium earlier this year
The ITF and the International Trade Union Confederation have called on trade unions around the world to back a day of action on 9 August in protest over the imprisonment of two trade union leaders in Iran.

Mansour Osanloo, President of the Tehran bus workers’ union, Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed, has for the third time over the past year and a half found himself in detention. The latest arrest took place after he was abducted while travelling on a Tehran bus on 10 July. He is being held in Evin prison, charged with “conspiring against national security”.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Salehi, a founding member of the Saqez Bakery Workers’ Association and of the Coordinating Committee to Form Workers’ Organisations, is currently imprisoned in Sanandaj in the Kurdistan Province. There is firm evidence that Salehi’s health is deteriorating owing to inadequate medical care in prison.

Pressure is being exerted on the Iranian authorities to release both Osanloo and Salehi before 9 August. However, if this fails to happen, ITUC and ITF affiliates and the global union movement will be asked to participate in an international day of action on 9 August. This date marks the anniversary of Mansour Osanloo’s released from prison following an earlier period of imprisonment. On the day, affiliates will be asked to take part in a number of activities, including visiting the Iranian diplomatic mission in their country with protests letters and copies of petitions collected by the ITF.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “Many affiliates have already responded to earlier calls for protest action. We are now asking them to continue this pressure. We believe that the particular circumstances in these two cases call for urgent and determined action if our two detained colleagues are to be released in the foreseeable future.”