Sunday, February 10, 2008
World rail day will also back Osanloo
http://www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/17847 February 2008
The ITF, which has led campaigning for Iranian trade unionist Mansour Osanloo, will dedicate its worldwide railway action day on 6 March 2008 to campaigning for his release from imprisonment. The action day traditionally gives workers the chance to promote rail as a safe and environmentally positive way of traveling, and this year will also allow them to show their support for Osanloo, whose release will also be demanded by Amnesty International, the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) and affiliated trade unions.
Mac Urata, Secretary of the ITF’s Inland Transport Section explained: “The Safety First rail action day takes place in over 60 countries and gives hundreds of thousands of rail workers worldwide a chance to mobilise in favour of affordable and sustainable transport. it will also give us a forum to once again support Mansour, who even as we speak is being held in Evin Prison in deteriorating health.”
“I’m delighted that in protesting the mistreatment of Mansour, his colleagues and fellow trade unionist Mahmoud Salehi, we are again being joined by the ITUC and Amnesty International.”
“Our recent ITF Urban Transport Committee meeting has firmly backed our campaign to keep Mansour Osanloo’s plight in the public eye, and we - the ITF, its regions, its different transport sections, its affiliates plus our colleagues in the international union and human rights movements will be doing just that worldwide on March 6th.”
Mansour Osanloo, 47, is the President of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed) trade union, which has been repeatedly targeted by the Iranian authorities. He has been repeatedly beaten and brutalised and is now being held in Tehran’s Evin prison. See http://www.itfglobal.org/solidarity/osanloo2.cfm for further information. A short film on the Osanloo case can be seen at www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/osanloo-film.cfm
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is a global federation representing nearly five million transport workers worldwide. Unions – currently around 700 from 150 countries – affiliate to the ITF, which is able to carry their interests into the global arena. Its website is at http://www.itfglobal.org/
ENDS
For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk
International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: http://www.itfglobal.org/
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