Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers’ Strike and March Reaches 38th Day; No One Remains Accountable
Workers at Haft Tappeh sugarcane factory, who began their labor protests on June 16, have continued their strike for the 38th consecutive day.
Based on released videos, they also held a march in the city of Shush on Wednesday, August 1, while continuing their strike.
According to the Haft Tappeh Workers’ Syndicate Telegram channel, the protesting workers of Haft Tappeh sugarcane factory held a protest gathering in front of the Shush County Governor’s Office on Tuesday in protest of the non-payment of four months of overdue wages and the failure to renew their health insurance booklets, and with demands for the cancellation of privatization and the return to work of dismissed colleagues, including Ismail Bakhshi and Mohammad Khanefer.
According to this report, despite the continuation of protests, no response has been given by officials to the demands of the protesting workers at Haft Tappeh sugarcane factory.
Once again, the Haft Tappeh Workers’ Syndicate has expressed its support for the legitimate demands of the workers and called for the speediest possible attention to the demands of Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers.
Previously, Voice of America reported that on Tuesday, July 15, on the 30th day of the Haft Tappeh workers’ protests, four protesting workers named Yousef Bahmani, Muslim Cheshm Khavar, Ibrahim Abbasi Manjeri, and Mohammad Khanefer were arrested by Shush police and security forces. Despite the spread of coronavirus in Iranian prisons, these individuals were transferred to Fajr Prison in Dezful, and according to available information, after one day of detention, they were released on Wednesday, July 16.
The Islamic Republic’s authorities have previously made security crackdowns on professional protests, including Haft Tappeh workers’ protests, and have arrested some protesting workers and members of the Haft Tappeh Workers’ Syndicate, and some of these workers, such as Ali Najati, a labor activist, have been sentenced to long-term imprisonment.
Workers at Haft Tappeh sugarcane factory conducted a 21-day strike in November 2018 in protest of unpaid wages. The protesting workers believed that the private sector employer was unable to manage the factory, and that the workers’ council could run the Haft Tappeh sugarcane complex better than the employer.
These protests continue under conditions where Omid Asdbeigi, former chief executive of Haft Tappeh sugarcane, is the primary defendant in a case of disrupting the monetary and currency system. In the indictment against him, the charge of leading an organized disruption of the country’s monetary and currency system through large-scale currency smuggling and unauthorized foreign currency transactions is evident.
While Iran faces an economic crisis and labor protests continue, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced some time ago that the Islamic Republic would continue its “economic cooperation” with Syria. Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, also stated that one of the main objectives of his government’s foreign policy was to return the Syrian people to normal life.
The Islamic Republic continues to spend in Syria and other countries while Iranian people have repeatedly demanded in their protests with the slogan “Leave Syria alone, take care of our situation” that officials address Iran’s dire economic conditions.
The United States has repeatedly condemned Iran’s security crackdowns on workers. The U.S. State Department’s Persian Twitter account previously announced in a post that “the Islamic Republic regime could have paid Iranian workers’ wages with the money it spent in Syria.”
Source: Voice of America
