The ITUC participates in the
annual meeting of the ILO.
This year coincides with the 40th anniversary of
the ILO's support for the Iranian labour movement, which was registered in 1983
(1362) under case number 1187. Comparing reports of strikes and repression, imprisonments,
and mass executions during that bloody decade with 2022-2023 (1402), clearly
protests have become more extensive and the economic and social conditions of
Iranian workers has fallen to lower levels.
In addition to repression,
conditions include the prohibition of the right to organize and strike,
imprisonment and execution, more than four million child labourers and several
million pensioners living below the poverty line, sexual and ethnic
discrimination are rampant, and workers in various economic sectors work under
the lowest safety conditions. Minimum wage equates to absolute hunger and dire
poverty. Due to the lack of economic policies, many economic institutions have
become insolvent. Widespread unemployment plagues Iranian workers, and 96% of
workers are employed on temporary contracts and in informal positions. Workers
in the free enterprise zones of commerce and energy live under slave-like
conditions.
On October 8, 2022 the
International Trade Union Confederation, the Trade Union Consultative
Committee, and the Global Union Federations (GUFs) announced in a statement:
"The entire international trade union movement stand in solidarity and
respect with the incredibly brave people who are standing up against the brutal
oppression by the leaders of the Iranian regime." The resistance led
by women and girls who, despite being at great risk, wish to end misogyny and
subjugation of their basic rights to dignity by the government.
On 21 November 2022, at the ITUC
World Congress, the ITUC condemned the systematic violation of the fundamental
rights of the Iranian people, including the right to organize, and demanded the
release of imprisoned labour and trade union activists, an end to violence
against women and girls, and the ratification and implementation by the Iranian
government of the ILO conventions. They also demanded that the Islamic
Republic recognize independent trade unions in Iran.
On May 26, 2023, the European
Trade Union Confederation issued a resolution titled The Women, Life, Freedom Movement, in
which the regime's tactics to brutally suppress the labor movement, suppress
the media, strikes and protests, and arrest, torture, rape and the execution of
prisoners, promotion and the continued revolutionary conditions of recent
months are condemned.
Many labour and civil society
organizations around the world issued similar statements of support for Iran’s
worker and social movements. Unfortunately, however, by choosing the Iranian representative as the chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council Social
Forum, the UN stands in direct opposition to the Iranian people, and has caused
increasing mistrust by the Iranian people of global organizations.
Under the prevailing conditions
for Iranian workers, they wish for the independent global workers organizations
to continue extensive and powerful support for the Iranian labour struggles, and
to present a plan to propel these struggles. Today, we need a united strategy
to drive the political and economic struggles in Iran such that widespread
participation of global workers and social movements can help Iranian workers
regain their lost rights. We affirmed this last February in our Declaration of Minimum Demands by
twenty labour and civil society organizations and insist on its implementation.
We request support to implement the declaration.
To that end, we demand:
1- Similar to Complaint No. 2807
(2010) regarding the presence of so-called "Iranian labour
representatives" in the International Labour Organization, we request that
the credentials of the Iranian labour delegation to participate in the ILO
Congress be revoked. Their participation should be forbidden as there is no
real voice of independent trade unions of Iranian workers. Since Seyed
Mohammad Yarahmadian, is the "representative and head of the regime's
labour delegation to the International Labour Organization", while also
being the handpicked representative of the Supreme Council of workers
representatives of the armed forces, he must be barred from representing the
workers of Iran.
2- As with previous years, call
out the names of global economic institutions that participate in violating the
rights of Iranian workers through economic cooperation with the Iranian
government. Many Western economic and financial institutions have investments
in Iran must be used to force the Iranian regime to end the repression and
recognize workers rights.
We ask the international
independent labour organizations to identify and name institutions and
individuals who have played a role in driving Iran's economy to catastrophic
conditions or in oppressing the people - such as military institutions - which
have investments in foreign countries today. Hold accountable the institutions
that play a role in communication technology used to oppress Iranians. It is
the right of wage earners to have the opportunity for independent
communication.
3- Support the prisoners in
medieval prisons and dungeons who protested for their basic natural rights and
demand the unconditional and immediate release of workers, teachers, students,
journalists, gender equality activists, etc.
The government of Iran should not
be allowed to avoid responding to the ILO conventions it has signed. Today, the
ILO Committee of Experts work regarding the situation of the prisons and
prisoners is an urgent issue. The deplorable conditions in the prisons continue
to deteriorate, as mass arrests, unfounded extended sentences, and mass
executions are increasing every day.
We are certain that the day will
arrive when workers will obtain their basic rights and the right to organize.
June 2023
Centre for Labour Rights Defenders
