· 5 Khatoon Abad Copper mine workers were released on bail
· 23 workers still in custody
· IndustriALL Global Union calls for the prompt and unconditional release of arrested workers
· Please continue to send your protest letters
February 9, 2016 – According to the latest confirmed news from Iran, 5 of the 28 arrested workers of Khatoon Abad Copper Mines were released on February 8, 2015 each on 50 million tomans bail. This means they will almost certainly face charges at a later time. These workers were in custody for thirteenth days (since January 26, 2016) in the Shahr-e Babak Prison (City of Babak in Kerman Province). They met with judicial authorities during this time but their charges have not been verified. There are currently no updates on the status of the remaining 23 detained workers. According to the most recent news, judicial authorities are particularly targeting eight of these workers and they may charge them with serious offences.
There have been international campaigns and actions against the arrest and persecution these copper workers.
IndustriALL Global Union, which represents more than 50 million workers in mining, energy and manufacturing industries in some 140 countries, has called on the government of Iran to immediately release 28 workers arrested. See: http://www.industriall-union.org/search?regions=Iran
IndustriALL’s General Secretary, Jyrki Raina, in a protest letter to Hassan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, dated February 2, 2016, wrote: “IndustriALL Global Union urges your administration to help secure the prompt and unconditional release of the 28 workers. Furthermore, we call on you to instruct the National Iranian (Copper) Industries Company, which owns the Khatoon Abad Copper Mines, to reinstate the 170 contract workers, who were recently dismissed.”
“It is also imperative that the National Iranian (Copper) Industries Company grant the contract workers their promised permanent positions. Workers should not be subject to precarious working conditions. Therefore, we call on the Government of Iran to enforce fundamental labour rights at the company…. In this regard, IndustriALL Global Unions urges the Government of Iran to ratify ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, and ILO Convention 98 on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, said Mr. Raina to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Moreover, in an appeal by a number of veteran Iranian labour leaders who have been in exile, workers’ organizations internationally have been urged to do whatever it takes to help secure the immediate and unconditional freedom of these workers. See below.
Asia Australia Workers Link, among others, also reported on the arrest of these workers. See: http://www.aawl.org.au/content/iranian-workers-continue-fight
More updates will be issued in coming days.
PLEASE SEND protest letters demanding the immediate release of all arrested workers, directly to:
· Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
Twitter: @khamenei_ir (English) or @Khamenei_fa (Persian)
Email: [email protected]
· President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Hassan Rouhani
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @HassanRouhani (English) and
@Rouhani_ir (Persian)
· The Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran – High Council of Human Rights
· Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations
Email: [email protected]
An Appeal:*
Unite for an immediate act to release the jailed workers of the Khatoon Abad copper mine in Iran
To: all egalitarian human beings and the freedom and equity seeking individuals
To: all members & the representatives of trade unions across the world
To: all egalitarian, progressive parties and organizations supporting the workers’ rights
We are a group of the former labor organizations’ representatives in Iran, and the present labor activists abroad, that our aim is to defend and to support the labor movement in Iran. We are asking you all to sign this petition in solidarity with the Iranian jailed workers.
*see the latest updates on arrested workers above
The Petition
The detained workers and the labor activists of the Khatoon Abad in shahr e Babak copper mines must be released immediately.
From Tuesday, January 26, 2016, until now, the 28 protesting workers of the Khatoon Abad Copper Mine have been in detention/custody. According to the available reports, and the statements by some of the detained workers’ lawyers, so far, no action has been taken by the authorities, for the release of these workers, and they are still in custody.
The workers have been working for 4 years with the lowest wage, for the subsidiary copper mine company, hoping to be employed by the refinery’s project. Mr. Saad Mohammadi, the former CEO of the copper company, at the beginning of the project, promised to employ all of these workers, but last year, the copper complex for the required labour force of this company, were ordered to take a recruitment exam. The workers with the knowledge that the recruitment exam could seriously jeopardise their job security, along with their families, have protested repeatedly and gathered with the uncertainty of guaranteed job security, for the past year.
Despite the initial promise from the authorities, to guarantee their job security, the 170 workers of the subsidiary copper Mine Company of the Khatoon Abad in Shahr e Babak, were laid off. Following this deception by the government’s employer, the workers, along with their families started their widespread protests. The suppressive police and the security forces of the Islamic regime, attacked the workers, beat them, and arrested 28 of the protesting workers, who are still in custody now.
In this industrial area, the repression and the denial of the workers, has a long history:
The workers in the Khatoon Abad copper Mine complex, have been faced with the fundamental dilemma/basic problems of the very hard work and uncertain job security, and their rightful demands, either have been suppressed violently, or have been unanswered by the various promises of the management of the complex, and the Government’s authorities.
The Iranian and the world’s workers remember that following the layoff of 200 workers of the Khatoon Abad Copper Mine complex of the Babak Shahr in January 2004, the dismissed workers, with their families, started their protests & sit ins. The workers, after this protesting move, which did not achieve a positive conclusion, closed the Khatoon Abad’s road to the Shahr e Babk. At this time the oppressive forces of the Islamic regime arrived with the use of a helicopter, attacked, injured, and dispersed the workers. The workers continued their protest in front of the Babak’s City Government. The suppressive regime forces shot at the workers this time, killing four workers, and one child. The killing news of the Khatoon Abad workers by the capitalist Islamic regime was published immediately across the world, and a global campaign in condemning this regime’s crime was launched.
We strongly condemn the dismissal of the 170 workers of the Khatoon Abad copper Mine Company, repression of the protesting workers, and the arrest of 28 workers of this company. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of all the imprisoned workers, and the labour activists.
***
If you are interested to sign this petition and your name be published, please contact us by the following emails:
Ali Pichgah
Former representative of the Tehran refinery council
Morteza Afshari
Former representative of the Tehran printing workers
Ali Mobaraki
Former representative of the Abadan Project Syndicate
The names of the individual supporters of this appeal:
Ali Pichgah
Ali Mobaraki
Arash Kamangar
Akbar Seyf – Paris
Ali Reza Navai
Ahmad Bekhradtab
Ali Goushe
Araz Fani
Akbar Karimian
Amir Payam
Ahmad Mashouf
Amador Navidi
Akbar Deylami
Ayoub Rahmani
Amin Bayat
Abas Ghorbani
Aziz Momoli
Ali Ashrafi
Ali Jusefi
Ahmad Reza Moayed Mohseni
Amir Javaheri Langeroudi
Ardeshir Nasrolah Beygi
Asgar Shirinbolaghi
Azar Azari
Ahmad Rafat
Atefeh Eghbal
Ahmad Mazarei
Arash Kamangar
Almas Farzi
Ali Karimzadeh
Anahita Ardavan
Aydin Fani
Ahmad Mazaheri
Aziz Maleki
Ali Nadimi
Ahmad Sahand
Bina Darabzand
Bahman Amini
Behnam Changai
Bahram Rahmani
Behrooz Sooren
Bijan Rastegar
Babak Ejlali
Bahman Yousefi
Bahman Khodadadi
Darjoush Majlesi
Darjoush Arjomand
Daryoush Parsian
Ehsan Sabet
Elaheh Shokrai
Esmail Moloudi
Elsa Fani
Esmail Fatahi
Eskandar Lotfi
Elmira Fani
Farokh Ghahremani
Farah Notash
Farhang Ghasemi
Forouzan Ameli
Farshid Jasai
Fatemeh Rezai
Faramarz Dadvar
Farid Partovi
Fariba Marzban
Gholam Asgari
Gisoo Shakeri
Hamila Nisgili
Hedayat Gholami
Hayedeh Ghahremani
Habib
Hossein Naghipour
Hayedeh Gharemani
Hamid Riahi
Homayoun Mehmanesh
Hedayat Gholami
Isa Baziar
Isan Miran
Jousof Ardalan
Jamshid Mehr
Jaleh Sahand
Jousef Ardalan
Jamshid Jamshidi
Jamshid Safapour
Jamil Khanchezar
Khosro Ahangar
Khosro Shahriari
Kourosh Aftasi
Morteza Afshari
Mohamad Ashrafi
Mozafar Falahi
Mina Zarin
Maryam Zia
Manijeh Sadeghi
Mansour Tifouri
Mohsen Khoshbin
Masoud Forouzesh Rad
Mohamad Taghi Jousefi
Minoo Homeyli
Mohsen Rezvani
Maryam Ashrafi
Mahmoud Ghazvini
Majid Tamjidi
Mahmoud Khademi
Mohamad Taghi Seydahmadi
Manouchehr Valai
Mohamad Baran
Maghsoud Kasebi
Majid Moshayedi
Mohamad Beheshti
Mohamad Khoshaman
Majid Mousavi Bidar
Nader Sani
Neda Noavar
Nasrin Ahmadi
Nasan Ansari
Naser Parnian
Nosrat Teymourzadeh
Nahid Farhad
Parviz Ghelichkhani
Pouran Asadi
Parisa Abidi
Pirouz Zourchang
Parvin Riahi
Parviz Mirmokri
Parviz Jahan
Pouran Asadi
Parviz Davarpanah
Reza Kabi
Roja Roshan
Rahim Askhari
Raouf Kabi
Reza Bishetab
Reza Ebrahimi
Sedigh Jahani
Siamak Jahanbakhsh
Sedigh Esmaili
Salam Ziji
Soraya Fatahi
Satar Rahmani
Sousan Shahbazi
Salah Irandoust
Sahar Mohamadi
Said Taghavi
Sasan Danesh
Sahar Dinarvand
Siamak Moayedzadeh
Siavosh Abghari
Sharareh Rezai
Shapour Mori
Shapour Gooya
Zohreh Habib Mohamadi
The above appeal also was supported by the following organizations:
Council in Solidarity with the Workers’ Movements – Paris
International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran
The revolutionary party logistics – the first step
Committee for Union and communist left-wing forces in the Netherlands
Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Association – Gothenburg
Cultural Center – Social Thought – Gothenburg
Info Iran – Vienna
Iran anarchist workers
Signed by sites and weblogs:
Etehad Kargari
Lajvar
International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran
Radio Payam – Canada
Ranginkaman
Ehteram Azadi
Etelaat Net
Iran Triboun
Ofogh Roshan
Estrak Woredpress
Akhgar
Esmail Moloudi
Reza Bishetab
Mina Zarin
Mahmoud Khademi
Moalem Etesabi
Gozareshgaran
09.02.2016
Prepared by Gozareshgar.com