Posted on 12/23/2005 1:27:12 AM PST by F14 Pilot
Washington -- Iranian authorities have arrested 14 members of a group representing thousands of Tehran bus drivers for engaging in "illegal activities." The group has been staging protests for months as part of efforts to form an independent union and have wages paid.
Among those arrested today was group leader Mansour Osanlou and an associate, Mansour Hayat-Ghaybi. Maryam Hayat-Ghaybi told Radio Farda that government agents searched her house, seizing all documents related to her husband's union activities.
"(The agents) only told me I should not be worried, he is safe," she said. "They told me they took my husband to ask him a few questions. They said he would be back soon but they did not tell me where he is now and how we can pursue his situation."
An official of the bus drivers' syndicate told Radio Farda that drivers will begin new work stoppages on 25 December if those arrested are not released.
TWU can go on strike and get away with it while workers in other oppressed countries are beaten and jailed for claiming their very rights!
Ironic, if you ask me!
Why couldn't it be NYC???
Somewhere in Bentonville, Arkansas corporate executives are targeting Tehran for future Wal-Marts. It's their kind of town.
The Iranian government needs to be overthrown, but Unions are not the way to go. They should learn from our mistakes and not let the unions gain a foothold.
B-b-b-b-but Bill Clinton said - at Davos - that Iran is a place where progressive ideas take root and bloom. How on earth could those Mean Mullahs *do* something like that to organized labor? I mean, they gored these bus drivers' oxes.
"Iran today is, in a sense, the only country where progressive ideas enjoy a vast constituency. It is there that the ideas that I subscribe to are defended by a majority."
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