PERSECUTION OF IRANIAN TRADE UNIONISTS

That this House condemns the attempted assassination on 18th October 2007 of Iranian trade union activist Majid Hamidi by three masked gunmen; notes that Iranian labour activists are convinced that armed attacks of this type are done with the knowledge of the Iranian government; shares their concern that this represents a considerable escalation in persecution of trade unionists, which they have called a Colombianisation of the situation in Iran; notes the continuing imprisonment of independent trade union activists such as Mansour Osanloo, leader of the Tehran bus workers' union, as well as Mahmoud Salehi and Ebrahim Madadi, documented on the Labourt Start website; and calls upon the UK Government to press the International Labour Organisation to raise this issue as a matter of urgency with the Iranian government.