Trade unionists back Iranian colleagues 20 January 2006 Delegates from 50 urban transport trade unions in 31 countries expressed solidarity with the Teheran bus workers resisting sustained attacks from government authorities. The ITF Urban Transport Committee Meeting held at CGT House, Paris, from 17 to 19 January noted with concern the continued detention of the union leader, Mansour Osanloo and added their demand to that of the ICFTU for his immediate release. ?This attack on the Teheran bus workers was viewed as part of a wider attack on the rights of trade unions to organise. These attacks have to stop? said Mac Urata, Secretary of the ITF?s Inland Transport sections. Union after Union reported that neo-liberal economic policies attempting to reshape the aims of public service in urban transport were resulting in negative consequences. Most speakers reported on the reduction in services for the public, increased concerns about safety by unions and passengers, ongoing attacks on trade unions and the company drive for shareholder profit. A delegate from Switzerland observed that multinationals were not entering into Swiss passenger transport because no company is allowed to pay a dividend to shareholders if the service is subsidised by the state. These reports clearly indicated unions are often the main lobby group attempting to represent the interests of passengers in addition to their responsibilities to bargain for their members. The debate on the expansion of multinational companies into urban transport exposed the ?two-faced? attitudes of these companies who will recognise and bargain with unions when forced to but ignore and seek to avoid unionisation wherever possible. Unions agreed to strengthen and increase their union campaigns within these companies in the interests of advancing workers employment conditions and protecting the interests of the travelling public. The rush to privatise urban transport was also having a negative effect on workers and passengers as almost every union reported an increase in attacks on workers ranging from verbal abuse to life threatening physical violence. Many associated this increased level of violence to passenger frustration with the public service provided. French CGT unions, gained immediate agreement that the issues of pensions and retirement rights were under universal attack and therefore unions had to defend their members? historic rights to a pension in the interests of both the workers and society as a whole.