Cooperative Council of Iranian Teachers Trade Associations (CCITTA)

2nd floor,

No.4, 21 Azar Al. Miriam St.

East of Emamzade Ghasem sq.

Tajrish sq.

P.O. Box 193953543

Tehran

Iran

By email: info@hamahangi.org

14 December 2021

Dear Comrades,

We write as Joint General Secretaries of the National Education Union (NEU) in the UK to express the solidarity of the NEU with teachers and education workers across Iran who have been protesting in their thousands in recent days and weeks.

We pledge the full support of the NEU for educators’ protests against inadequate funding of education, the Government’s failure to implement the teacher job-evaluation scheme and the failure to properly equalise pensions for retired teachers.

We also extend our full solidarity to those teacher trade union leaders who have been jailed by the Iranian authorities, including Esmail Abdi, who we know has been held in prison since 2015 in harsh conditions and whose health continues to be a cause of concern; and Rasoul Badaghi, a member of the board of directors of the Islamshahr ITTA, who we understand was arrested during Saturday’s protests.

The right to protest, to form and join a trade union and to take collective action as trade unionists are fundamental human rights. As an organisation committed to trade union and human rights, the NEU demands the release of Esmail Abdi, Rasoul Badaghi and all other arrested trade union leaders in Iran.

We call on the authorities in Iran to guarantee the rights of teachers and education workers to organise, and to freedom of association and freedom of speech including the right to peaceful assembly, without fear of intervention. We also demand an end to the harassment and victimisation of the families of arrested trade union leaders. 

In solidarity,