International Workers’ Day was marked by demands such as the right to independent unions and freedom for imprisoned activists, raised by the Vahed Company Syndicate, the Iranian Writers’ Association, and 2 imprisoned labor activists. Two members of the Vahed Company Syndicate were in temporary detention on this day.
Several members of the Vahed Company workers’ syndicate who participated in the International Workers’ Day ceremony in Tehran with their independent slogans faced police attack. Police arrested two syndicate members named Rasoul Talebmoghadam and Nasser Mohammadzadeh and kept them in detention until the end of the Workers’ Day ceremony.
This year, the 11th of Ordibehesht, due to the current Gregorian year being a leap year, coincided with April 30, and consequently the International Workers’ Day ceremony in Iran was held one day earlier than in many countries around the world.
According to Iranian media reports, on this day tens of thousands of Iranian workers participated in the International Workers’ Day demonstration at the invitation of the “Workers’ House.” Workers participating in this demonstration were demanding “reform of temporary work contracts, support for Iranian goods and implementation of resistance economy production and economy, attention to workers’ and teachers’ professional demands, and recognition of the right to freedom of workers’ labor activities.”
Campaign for Syndicate Independence and Freedom of Activists
Some demands that were not raised in organized demonstrations by the only permitted labor organization in the Islamic Republic were brought forward by a group of members of the Vahed Company workers’ syndicate with their own slogans.
Fair wages, freedom for imprisoned labor activists, workers’ right to have independent syndicates were among the demands raised by the Vahed Company workers’ syndicate. According to the Vahed Company workers’ syndicate website, a number of members of the Vahed Company workers’ syndicate, who had support from groups of students and other workers, participated in Tehran’s Workers’ Day ceremony with their independent slogans and placards bearing the syndicate’s emblem.
The Iranian Writers’ Association also issued a statement referring to serious threats, unemployment, inflation, and widespread poverty that threaten workers’ livelihoods. This association referred to itself as a representative of “workers in the realm of thought and pen” and demanded “wage increases in line with human living standards, freedom of independent organizations, and freedom of imprisoned workers’ activists and leaders.”
Joint Statement by Two Imprisoned Labor Activists
On the eve of May 1st, Ismail Abdi, secretary-general of the Iranian Teachers’ Professional Association, and Jafar Azimzadeh, board member secretary of the Free Union of Iranian Workers, released a joint statement from Ward 8 of Evin Prison.
Ismail Abdi and Jafar Azimzadeh announced that from Friday, the 10th of Ordibehesht, on the eve of International Workers’ Day and International Teachers’ Day, they would begin an indefinite hunger strike. In letters that each separately submitted to Evin Prison authorities, they stated that their hunger strike is “in protest against the securitization of labor and teachers’ professional activities, gatherings and strikes, wages below the poverty line, prohibition of independent and free observance of International Workers’ Day and International Teachers’ Day, lack of transparency and effective action by the International Labor Organization (ILO) regarding violations of fundamental rights of Iranian workers and teachers, and demanding the removal of charges of ‘gathering and conspiracy to act against national security’ and other security charges from the open cases of protesting workers and teachers and removing such false and fabricated charges from their files and other imprisoned labor and teachers’ activists.”
Ismail Abdi, secretary-general of the Iranian Teachers’ Professional Association, has been sentenced to 6 years imprisonment on two charges of “propaganda against the system and conspiracy against national security.” He was arrested on June 27, 2015, following summons to Evin Prosecutor’s Office.
Jafar Azimzadeh, board member secretary of the Free Union of Iranian Workers, has also been sentenced to 6 years imprisonment and 2 years deprivation of the right to membership in political parties and activity in cyberspace and media on charges of “gathering and conspiracy to act against the country’s security and disruption of public order.” Azimzadeh went to Evin Prison on Sunday, November 8, 2015, to serve his 6-year sentence.
According to the Free Union of Iranian Workers website, the joint statement by Abdi and Azimzadeh, as a unified action by representatives of the two professions of workers and teachers, has been welcomed by many Iranian labor and teachers’ organizations.
