The protracted negotiations, involving Iran and the P5+1 group of nations, which concluded in Vienna in July, appear to have secured a deal which is both acceptable to the West and the regime in the Islamic Republic.

In exchange for closer inspection of Iran’s nuclear centrifuge production and limitations on its domestic nuclear energy programme, the West will begin the process of lifting the economic sanctions which are crushing the Iranian economy.

As ever with any deal on such a scale, there is a quid pro quo.

The assistance of Iran and the Shi’ite militias it supports in Iraq and Syria has been vital for the West in tackling the rise of Isis. While co-operation between the Islamic Republic and the West has not been formally acknowledged there is considerable evidence to support this reality on the ground.

It is clear that such co-operation would be undermined by an Iran buckling under the weight of economic sanctions. The momentum to find a path to a nuclear deal has therefore been accelerated.

While the Iranian regime has been smiling to the West it has been less flexible in its dealings with internal pressures.

In fact, the response to internal dissent has intensified over recent months as trade unionists, political activists and human rights campaigners face increased harassment by the regime.

In May, the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (Codir) launched an appeal calling for the release of trade unionists jailed in the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

The appeal took the form of a letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, elected in 2013, and addressed the issues of greater reform and transparency in Iran.

It was also linked to demands for economic reform in Iran, calling upon Rouhani “to fulfil the promises he made during his 2013 election campaign to act on the legitimate demands of Iranian workers for a decent living wage and the right to form, join and belong to a trade union of their choice.”

Since July 2014, large groups of workers, including miners, auto workers, teachers and nurses across Iran, have taken to the streets and demonstrated outside the Iranian parliament to demand their rights, as set out in international conventions.

Particular attention has been drawn by trade unionists to International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions 87, guaranteeing freedom of association, and 98, which guarantees the right to collective bargaining. These conventions, and the rights of Iranian workers, are routinely flouted by the government in Iran.

Codir assistant general secretary Jamshid Ahmadi underlined the significance of keeping the fate of trade unionists in Iran in the public eye.

“Over the years we have received many reports of workers and trade unionists being arrested, imprisoned, fired and deprived of their livelihood,” he said. “Many trade union activists are serving prison sentences for the sole ‘offence’ of being trade unionists and campaigning for decent wages and improved working conditions. We hold that no workers should be detained in prison for demanding their internationally accepted rights.”

However, in spite of both internal and international pressure, the Iranian regime has sought to suppress not only labour disputes but any news coverage of them by the Iranian media.

Iran’s Labour News Agency (ILNA) is the only news agency authorised by the government of Iran to provide limited coverage of labour-related news and developments.

However, on June 20 this year, the entire ILNA labour affairs group was sacked on the spot by chief executive Massoud Heydari.

Preceding the mass sacking, the website of ILNA had stopped covering labour news for two days. There was no official explanation by ILNA of this decision.

News on social media within Iran revealed that there had been major disagreements between ILNA’s labour affairs group and the management on editorial interference, gagging orders and pressure for self-censorship.

A letter from the sacked journalists — released by Codir — substantiated social media claims that management interference in how news was covered was key to the dispute.

In particular, the protest by workers from the Farsit Daroud factory on June 18 was characterised by management as being unjustified because the demands were excessive.

As the sacked journalists asserted in their letter, “we as the journalists are not in a position to pass judgement on the legitimacy of the workers’ trade union protests … our duty is to publish this news.”

The journalists indicated that the most important aspect of their dispute with management concerned the setting up of a trade union body within ILNA, in order to advance legitimate demands for paid overtime, shift payments and holidays.

Two days after management received a letter outlining these demands the mass sacking occurred.

“The ILNA journalists are yet another example of workers taking a legitimate stand in relation to their basic rights only to find themselves sacked for doing so. This is employer intimidation of the worst kind,” said Ahmadi.

Codir fears for the fate of a number of trade unionists imprisoned for engaging in nothing more than trade union activity.

These include Ali-Reza Hashemi, Rassoul Bodaghi, Mahmood Bagheri, Mohammad Davari, Abdulreza Ghanabri (all members of the Teachers’ Association) and Shahrokh Zamani, Behnam Ebrahimdzadeh, Mohammad Jarrahi (all members of the Painters’ and Decorators’ Union).

The action against trade unionists is part of a co-ordinated policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to maximise pressure upon activists, their colleagues and family members in order to silence them and the trade union movement in Iran.

“Support for Iran’s workers,” continued Ahmadi, “will once again remind the Iranian president that if his supposed reform platform is to be taken seriously, it needs to be translated into action. The eyes of the world are once again upon Iran and its people deserve their basic rights, as citizens and trade unionists.”

It is vital, therefore, that the success of the negotiation around the nuclear issue is not used as a smokescreen to hide the limitations of the Islamic Republic on the domestic front.

Trade unionists, political activists and human rights campaigners must maintain the pressure upon the Iranian regime and press for the freedoms their colleagues languishing in Iran’s prisons deserve.

• Jane Green is the national campaign co-ordinator of Codir. For further information on events and developments in Iran contact codir_info@btinternet.com or visit www.codir.net