Iranian Teachers Seeking Better Wages, Beaten During Rally (is this the American way?)

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/17/iranian-teachers-seeking-better-wages-beaten-during-rally/

Iranian Teachers Seeking Better Wages, Beaten During Rally



Hundreds of Iranian teachers were beaten and arrested in a rally at the Education Ministry and the Parliament in Tehran. Cathy Feingold at the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center tells us that thousands of Iranian teachers have been protesting over the past month for respect, higher pay and better working conditions around the country, and hundreds were beaten and arrested at the March 14 protest.

On March 14, thousands of Iranian teachers and academics from various academic trade associations were staging a peaceful protest at the Iranian Parliament and the Education Ministry of Tehran, seeking higher wages and better working conditions. Of these, hundreds were beaten, arrested and transported to undisclosed locations. Those arrested were not allowed to contact their families, fellow trade association members or attorneys. In addition to the Tehran arrests, leaders of regional teachers trade associations also were harassed, questioned and arrested.

Approximately 70 percent of Iranian teachers live far below the poverty line, and the other 30 percent barely scrapes by. The government has discriminated against school teachers for years, and withheld pay raises and benefits that other government workers routinely receive. The authorities tell the teachers that because the teachers are so numerous, entitling them to the same privileges as other government workers would place the government in budgetary distress. Most teachers hold two or three jobs to make ends meet. Their working conditions are so difficult and their pay is so low they feel they have lost their stature in society, and have no choice but to organize and stage protests until their voices are heard and their respect is regained. Over the past several years they formed some 30 trade associations.

The teachers have engaged government authorities several times over the past few months—staging five protests nationwide in the past month alone—asking for opportunities to be heard. Although government officials make promises to address the teachers’ issues, those promises are regularly broken. On March 13, the teachers met with their Members of Parliament to discuss passage of a Pay Parity Bill that could guarantee a raise and give teachers pay parity on par with those of other government workers. At the meeting, they were condemned and threatened by the Security and Intelligence force. There were no representatives present from the Ministry of Education. The meeting became one of many exercises in despair and futility for the teachers trade associations.

Education International (EI), the International Global Union Federation of educators, is closely monitoring the situation. On March 9, the organization sent a protest letter to the Iranian President Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to urge the government enter into dialogue with the teacher associations and immediately and unconditionally release the teacher representatives arrested during protests. Most important, EI also demanded the rights of all workers’ organizations to hold meetings and public protests relating to work conditions, economic and social policy. On March 13, immediately following the fruitless meeting between the teachers and the government in the Parliament, EI issued a press release publicizing the Iranian government’s recalcitrance to negotiate an agreement with the teachers.

FULL story at link.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. It has been the American way since Governor Peabody used

troops against striking miners at Cripple Creek in 1904. In fact 1n 1917 at the Copper Mines in Bisbee Az. when copper prices were climbing because of the war, mine workers asked for a share of the increasing profit. They were told, and this may sound familiar, "They were undermining national strength and the war effort by their selfishness".
(source:The Legacy of Conquest by P. Limerick 1987

The American way has always been to exploit labor to benefit Capital.

[Stargazer99]

2. Of course it is the American way just look at our labor slaves

There is not too much difference.