Hassan Rouhani, President Palestine Avenue, Pasteur St., Pasteur Sq. Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
E-mail: media@rouhani.ir
Dear President Rouhani:
Subject: Solidarity with Imprisoned Truck Drivers and Teachers
The Vancouver and District Labour Council (VDLC) is a federation of trade unions representing 60,000 workers in our region of Canada.
We have learned that truck drivers in your country went on strike September 23 for three weeks, with urgent demands including addressing low pay and dangerous conditions. These workers faced harsh repression, including the arrest of 256 striking drivers on October 8 and have been threatened with punishment up to and including execution.
In response to this, the Global Union Federations (The International Transport Federation (ITF), Education International (EI), IndusriALL Global union, The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Association (IUF), and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in a joint statement October 17, condemned the execution threats and demanded unconditional and immediate release of all the detained drivers. We join them in this demand.
In addition, many teachers have also been arrested in relation to their national strike on October 15, including Mohammed Reza Ramazan Zadeh, General Secretary of the Teachers’ Association, as well as Mohammed Saleh Shekari and Abbas Vahedyan. Other teachers’ leaders were imprisoned in advance of this strike, including Abdolreza Ghanbari, Imsail Abdi, Mohammed Habibi, and Mahmoud Beheshti. As with the imprisoned truck drivers, we call for the unconditional release of these teachers.
We recognize that Iran continues to suffer from international sanctions which, since 2012, have cost the economy over $160 billion in lost oil revenues. This has resulted in harsh impacts for the standard of living of most Iranians, exacerbated by your government’s discontinuation of subsidies on energy and bread, that most Iranians relied heavily upon. These extreme levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequity are made even more unacceptable by the realization that the clergy continues to enjoy massive wealth.
Further, your government continues to oppress freedom of speech and imprison political opponents, trade union leaders, and activists.
For these reasons, the VDLC expresses its solidarity with the people of Iran who are calling for your government to release political and trade union prisoners, reinstate much-needed subsidies, address the problems of poverty and unemployment, and ensure that the clergy share its wealth with the people of Iran.
Yours truly,
Stephen von Sychowski President
cc: Executive
October 29, 2018