We demand the release of jailed workers and dropping of the cases against five Haft-Tapeh sugar cane workers

JOINT STATEMENT of the
Free Union of Iranian Workers, Trade Association of Kermanshah Electrical and Metalworkers, Shahoo workers…

We demand the release of jailed workers and dropping of the cases against five Haft-Tapeh sugar cane workers

14 days have passed since the detention of Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi (workers of Assaluye and members of the governing board of the Free Union of Iranian Workers) for their attempt to celebrate May Day. Until two days ago, the Intelligence Ministry in the city of Bushehr was refusing to reveal where the two were being held, thereby continuing to harass their families.

In order to follow up on the situation of their loved ones, the families of these workers put up a tent in Emam Square in central Bushehr, and were living in the tent all this time. However, last night the security forces in Bushehr came to the tent and said that they had no right to stay inside the city and must leave. They said if they intended to stay, they would have to stay somewhere outside the city. The security forces then dismantled the tent and moved the family to the outskirts. However, this morning Bushehr City Council also began dismantling the families’ tent in the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, in the past two weeks Javanmir Moradi has been denied his nerve and brain medicines and prevented from using his glasses. Except for three brief calls, no other contacts have been allowed with the families. All the calls have been monitored by the Intelligence Ministry of Bushehr and have in effect been a means of blocking the families of Javanmir and Taha from following up on their loved ones. In the last contact that Javanmir Moradi had with his family last night, May 13th, he told them that they were being moved to the city of Kermanshah. However, this morning the Intelligence Ministry of Bushehr told the families of Javanmir and Taha that the two were still needed there for another week. They were told to leave and come back in a week’s time. In our view, the contradictions in all the three instances of contact between these two and their families indicate that they are under severe physical and psychological duress in the Intelligence Ministry of Bushehr, such that they are made to call their families and lie to them.

During the 14 days of their detention, Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi have endured a great deal of physical and psychological pressures. This treatment is only a small part of the inhuman treatment of workers who have done nothing but try to celebrate May Day; an event, which, following the intervention of the security forces, even failed to materialise.

This inhuman treatment is going on at a time when Sheis Amani has been thrown into jail in the city of Sanandaj prior to this year’s May Day for the same offence of celebrating May Day; when Mansoor Ossanlou has been kept in prison for his labour activities, despite the demand of the workers in Iran and the world; and when five workers of Haft-Tapeh have been summoned for demanding their rights and those of their colleagues.

Therefore, we, the organisations and workers signatory to this Statement, declare that:

1- we strongly condemn the ongoing pressures on Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi and their families;

2- the inhuman treatment of these workers is nothing but an attempt to cook up bogus cases and fabricate spurious charges against them; an action which is condemned;

3- we demand the immediate and unconditional release of Javanmir Moradi, Taha Azadi, Sheis Amani and Mansoor Ossanlou and dropping of the cases against Jalil Ahmadi, Fereydoon Nikofard, Ahmad Nejati, Ghorban Alipoor and Mohammad Heydari Mehr, Haft-Tapeh sugar cane workers, who have been summoned to appear before court on 20th May for protesting against the non-payment of wages of Haft-Tapeh workers and for demanding their rights and those of their colleagues.

4- in our view, celebrating May Day, strike and assembly are workers’ evident rights in order to defend their human rights; we will defend this human right of ours.

Free Union of Iranian Workers
Trade Association of Kermanshah Electrical and Metalworkers
Workers of Shahoo Factory

And groups of workers from:

Kurdistan Textile Factory
Assaluye Gas Refinery, Phases 9 & 10
Niroo-Rakhsh Factory
Par-Ris Factory
Kermanshah Heavy Polyethylene Petrochemical Plant
Sanandaj Brick Kiln
Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company
Ghom Industrial City

14 May 2008

Copies to:
ITUC
Ayatollah Shahroudi, Head of the Judiciary
Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Source: Free Union of Iranian Workers (Ettehadiye Azad e Kargaran e Iran)

Translated by the International Labour Solidarity Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran (ILSC-WPI)