At the 40th day after
Afshin Osanlou’s death in Gohardash Prison, with publication of a statement,
two Iranian labor unions, the Mechanical Metal Workers’ Syndicate and the Board
for Reconstitution of the Tehran Painting and Decorating Workers’ Syndicate, have
called for a joint struggle for release of the detained labor unionists. A
segment of this call indicates, “At present, Mohammad Jarahy, a paint worker
and a member of the Tehran Painting and Decorating Workers’ Syndicate, is
stricken with thyroid cancer; and with his lack of access to a suitable doctor,
is headed towards death. Due to deficient medical therapy and care after his
surgery, Reza Shahabi, a bus driver and a Managing Board member of the ‘Union
of Workers of the Tehran
and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed)’, is in a bad condition….. To be able
to receive proper medical care, we demand that the Judiciary (Islamic Republic)
immediately release these ill detained workers.” The two independent unions of
our country have also appealed for international labor organizations’ support
in release of the detained workers; and have requested that they protest Islamic
Republic’s violation of the recognized union rights and freedoms.
Workers and labor activists such
as Reza Shahabi and Mohammad Jarahy are in prison, only because of their
membership in unions, and their open and legal trade-union activities.
Supporting these detained workers is a responsibility of all our country’s
labor-union activists and democratic forces. With a resolute support of the
independent unions’ call for release of the detained workers, in this sphere
and in concert with unions and union-activists, the Iranian Committee for
Labor-Union Relations is calling for an internal and an international joint
struggle; and to achieve that goal, will employ all its capacity.
