Friday, February 25, 2022: Michel O’Neill, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)- Australia’s largest 46-member trade union representing millions of workers, students, teachers and all walks of life in Australia – wrote a letter to the UN Secretary-General, in support of the Iranian teachers protests.
In this regard, the official website of the union wrote: The ACTU has expressed its solidarity with teachers on strike in Iran, condemned the Government’s repression of the protest actions, and called on the UN Secretary General to take action to address the situation.
The full text of Michelle O’Neill’s letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres in support of Iranian teachers is as follows:
António Guterres
Secretary General
United Nations
405 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
United States of America
sgcentral@un.org
25 February 2022
Dear Secretary General
Support teachers’ strikes and protests in Iran
The Australian Union movement is extremely concerned that the Iranian Government has not yet
responded to the demands of a series of nationwide protests and strikes by teachers and retirees over
the past four months in more than two hundred cities. Iranian teachers are calling for higher salaries,
pension reform and the payment of outstanding wages. Instead, the Government continues to arrest,
repress and imprison teachers. We are alarmed at the recent reports of security forces repressing a
protest in the city of Karaj on 19 February and arresting 15 teachers.
We support the teachers’ strikes and protests and support their demands as follows:
- Stop the repression, arrests and dismissal of teachers and union activists
- Release the teachers who are in prison
- Implement the Teacher Ranking and Equalisation Bill to achieve their goals
- Permanently hire the contract teachers in educational services
- Recognise the teachers’ right to hold protests without repression, arrest or intimidation.
We call for immediate action by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council and relevant Special Rapporteurs and international human
rights organisations to address the situation of the teachers in Iran.
Yours sincerely
Michele O’Neil
ACTU President
In the following link, you can see the PDF document of the ACTU support for Iranian teachers:
https://www.actu.org.au/media/1449913/iran-teachers-strike-250222.pdf
