Iran’s Free Workers’ Union: Suppression of Workers Is an Attempt to Intimidate Society
Following the issuance of heavy sentences for a number of labor activists and police attacks on Hepco workers’ gatherings that resulted in injuries, Iran’s Free Workers’ Union issued a statement condemning the “widespread wave of worker suppression” and described it as “an effort by government institutions to intimidate” workers and society as a whole.
In this statement published on the Free Workers’ Union of Iran website, referring to widespread labor gatherings in protest over non-payment of workers’ demands, it stated: “Officials show no willingness to respond to workers’ demands and requests, and instead, through arrests and issuing imprisonment and flogging sentences for workers, they are suppressing any form of demands and rights advocacy.”
The statement continued: “In this regard, the assault by law enforcement and security forces on labor gatherings with the aim of intimidating all Iranian workers has become routine practice by government institutions.”
The statement then, referring to the police attack on Hepco workers’ gathering that injured many and the simultaneous arrest of 28 of these workers, noted that another aspect of the worker suppression policy has been pursued through detention and issuance of long-term prison and flogging sentences over the past year.
The statement further referenced heavy sentences imposed on labor activists, including 6 to 18-year prison sentences for seven of the Haft Tappeh detainees, and cases filed against other activists including Parvin Mohammadi, Nahid Khodajou, Shapour Ehsani Rad, Nasrin Javadi, Farhad Shikhi, Hadi Soleimani, and Mehdi Fakhri, as well as the six-year prison sentence for Jafar Azimzadeh, chairman of the board of Iran’s Free Workers’ Union, considering these cases indicative of the reality that “the ruling apparatus has no willingness to respond to and fulfill the demands of workers, teachers, and retirees.”
Iran’s Free Workers’ Union further stated in its statement: “The reality of society clearly shows that society, contrary to the rulers’ perception, will not be intimidated by this kind of suppression.”
The United States has repeatedly condemned Iran’s security approach to workers. The U.S. State Department had also said in a message that the Islamic Republic regime, with the expense it has incurred in Syria, could have paid workers’ salaries in Iran.
Source: Voice of America
