April 19th, 2008

The second general assembly of the terminated and unemployed workers general union

was held on the 30th of Farvardeen, 1387 (April 18th, 2008) in the city of Sanandadj; one hundred and ten workers, member of the union from the cities of Tehran, Sanandadj, Kermanshah, Asslaveeyeh, Ghom industrial city, Mahabad and other areas were in attendance. In this gathering, some of the participants from Asslaveeyeh, Ghom industrial city, Tehran and Kermanshah’s heavey petrochemical polyethelene represented their groups.

At eleven a.m. the assembly was kicked off with a speech by Hassan Zareh, the organizing director of the union welcoming the participants; then there was a minute of silence in the memory of those from the workers class who lost their lives and finally the assembly began it’s work by the taking of votes for the selection of a board of directors. In this election process Mr. Reza Shahabi was elected as president, Mr. Seyyed Hadi Ahmadi, was chosen as vice president, Mr.’s Zahed Karimi and Kayvawn Sa’ed-Panah were elected to be the secretaries of the assembly’s board of directors; taking over the job of directorship of the general assembly of the union, began their work.

Next Mr. Sharif Sa’ed-Panah the union’s inspector presented his report on the one year activities of the union to the assembly and following that Jafar Azeem-Zadeh, representing the board of directors spoke of the previous year’s activities, going over it’s  weak points and the strong points he brought his report to a close. After that the work order issue was put to vote and as such the discussions and voting on the suggestions were presented and commenced.

The presented suggestions to the assembly and the approved were as follows:

Changing the name of the union from the assembly of the terminated and unemployed workers general union to the free workers union of Iran; following Jafar Azeem-Zadeh’s comments regarding this matter, the name change was passed  unanimously by the participants of the general assembly and a statement to this effect was issued.

A change in articles in the articles of association of the union that were suitable for the name change and those are the following articles:

- Changing the first section of the articles of association that were relevant to the description and aims of the union (passed unanimously)

- Addition of an article regarding national locations of the union (passed by partial vote)

- Addition of a committee entitled “Against Unemployment” to the union’s commissions (passed unanimously); other changes, all which were passed unanimously through the participants took place at the assembly.

After the election of the main and substitute members of the Free Workers and Union of Iran and it’s inspectors the workers assembly came to a close.

The names of the main members of the board of directors of the Free Workers Union of Iran, as elected at the general assembly are as follows: Sadeegh Karimi, Jafar Azeem-Zadeh, Khaled Souvawri, Jameel Mohammadi, Hossein Ghaderi, Hassan Zareii, Esmail Kazemi, Sharif Sa’ed-Panah, Tayyeb Mollai, Javanmir Moradi, Salam Sheikhi, Jabbar Khodamardi, Mohammad Faradji.

The names of the substitute members of the board of directors of the Free Workers Union of Iran, as elected at the general assembly are as follows: Esreen Vawsseli, Fayegh Kaykhosrow, Behrouz Chapawri, Farhad Arab-Zadeh, Faramarz Ghorbani, Teh Azadi, Yadollah Moradi.

The names of the inspectors of the union as elected at the general assembly are as follows: Farsheed Beheshti-Zadeh, Habibollah Fagheeh-Soleimani, Seyyed Saeed Seyyed Mohammadi

It is important to mention that due to the delay in the commencement of the assembly and the fact that it coincided with the work shift of some of the workers of Sanandadj and Mahabad, on the afternoon the assembly took place, it was not possible to read out the workers messages from various areas throughout the country and the free congress’s schedule was executed as scheduled and the issue of the request of the cooperation committee that was regarding the possibility of the May day joint ceremony was discussed at the behest of Bakhtiar Peer-Khazari, one of the participants of the assembly.

At the close of the assembly after the inspector’s report and the report of the union’s director of public relations, the disciplinary forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran appeared and loomed in the area; nothing happened despite this issue and the workers’ assembly came to a close.

Free Workers Union of Iran

Translated from Persian to English by Planet Iran staff