ITF statement: Bahrain sackings 'look like regime's revenge'

5 April 2011

ITF statement: Bahrain sackings 'look like regime's revenge'

Global union federation the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) today condemned the mass sackings sweeping across Bahrain in apparent revenge for trade unionists having gone on strike and protested for democratic change in the country.

ITF general secretary David Cockroft said: “It’s impossible to see these sackings as anything other than revenge for the role trade unionists have played in the movement for democracy in Bahrain: a new weapon by the authorities to deploy alongside the shooting of protesters in Pearl Square, the arrests and intimidation. And, like those tactics, they are utterly unacceptable and risk bringing the government and those supporting it militarily into disrepute.

“Workers in Bahrain went on strike to effect peaceful change, and at the request of the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU). They called off the strike when asked by the GFBTU in order to promote national unity and progress. That action is now being used to victimise them.”

ENDS

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