Ettehadiyeh-ye Sendika-ye Kargaran-e Iran
| Full name | Ettehadiyeh-ye Sendika-ye Kargaran-e Iran |
|---|---|
| Native name | اتحادیه سندیکای کارگران ایران |
| Founded | September 1946 |
| Date dissolved | 1951 |
| Iranian Trade Union Congress | |
| Members | 75,000 (claim, December 1947) |
| Affiliation | ICFTU |
| Key people | Mehdi Sharif-Emami, Khosrow Hedayat |
| Country | Iran |
Ettehadiyeh-ye Sendika-ye Kargaran-e Iran (Persian: اتحادیه سندیکای کارگران ایران, known by its acronym 'اسکی', ESKI) was a trade union centre in Iran. It was founded on the initiative of the Ministry of Labour and Propaganda in September 1946, with the explicit purpose of competing with the Tudeh-led Central United Council of the Trade Unions of Workers and Toilers of Iran (CUC). The task of setting up ESKI had been delegated to Mehdi Sharif-Emami, the director of the Dispute Settlement Department of the Ministry of Labour and Propaganda. ESKI published the newspaper Kargaran-e Iran. ESKI was a founding member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
The Tudeh Party sharply criticized the launching of ESKI, denouncing it as a 'yellow union'.
In state companies, workers were obliged to join ESKI in order to keep their jobs. In other sectors, coercion and bribes were used to pressure workers to join ESKI. The strength of ESKI was concentrated in railway plants, munition factories and the tobacco industry.
However, ESKI had limited success. There was a distinct gap between official membership figures (as the largest union centre in terms of membership in the country at the time) and the number of genuine followers. ESKI leaders were generally not experienced labour organizers. In the analysis of the U.S. labour attache, William J. Handley, ESKI was in the hands of government functionaries who, in Handley's view, were 'socially illiterate'.
On November 12, 1946, Tudeh mobilized a 24-hour general strike to condemn the murder of a railway worker. Tudeh accused ESKI of having hired thugs to carry out the assassination.
When the Tudeh-led CUC was suppressed in May 1947, ESKI hoped to be able to fill the void, but such a breakthrough never occurred. ESKI was also caught up in the political intrigues between Ahmad Qavam's Democratic Party of Iran on the one hand and the royal court and army on the other. Sharif-Emami was removed as head of ESKI, and replaced by Khosrow Hedayat (Director-General of the State Railways Organization, and a court loyalist of aristocratic background).
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