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20 February, 2006
Global unions worldwide condemned the government of Iran’s brutal suppression of bus drivers in Tehran and surrounding areas on 15 February. The condemnations came from the Global Union Federations, national unions and the ICFTU, but also were heard strongly from transport and oil unions in Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco and Tunisia. Rail workers and maritime unions in some of those North African and Middle East countries also participated in the Day of Action in support of Iranian bus drivers.
The government’s Intelligence Ministry and its security militia, Basij, has deployed brute force since spring 2005 to put down strikes by drivers who have been seeking unpaid wages. And since December, the repression has become more violent with the government using a variety of means to silence drivers’ protests.
On 28 January, 30 drivers were seriously injured and up to 1,400 were jailed for demonstrating. A few days later, family members and spouses of the jailed drivers gathered outside Iran’s parliament, Majiles, and were met by security forces. The leader of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Co. (Sherkat-e Vahed), Mansour Osanloo, has been held since the government arrested leaders of the union on 22 December.
Because Iranian security teams have used beatings to force drivers out on routes, workers have resorted to a continual “lights on” protest of buses to draw attention to the violent crack-down of workers’ rights by Iran’s authorities. The ICEM sent a strong letter of protest to the government of Iran on the 15 February Day of Action, which can be found at /index.php?id=24&doc=1658.&la=EN