Haft Tappeh workers went on strike for the 24th consecutive day; what are the workers' demands?

Workers at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory, who began their labor protests on June 16, have gone on strike for the 24th consecutive day.

According to video reports and an announcement on the Telegram channel of the Haft Tapeh Workers’ Union, on Wednesday, July 8, the city of Shush in Khuzestan Province once again witnessed widespread protests by workers to achieve their labor demands and take back the factory from the private sector. The protesters also demanded the return of fired workers, including Esmaeil Bakhshi and Mohammad Khanifer, to their jobs.

The report states that the strike will continue until the demands of the Haft Tappeh workers are met. It should be noted that the Haft Tappeh workers have repeatedly held protest rallies to achieve their rights and demands.

In November 2018, these workers went on strike for 21 days in protest of the non-payment of their arrears of wages. The protesting workers at the Haft Tappeh sugar factory believed that the private sector employer was not capable of managing the factory and that the workers' council could run the Haft Tappeh sugar factory better than the employer.

Also, in recent years, the Islamic Republic's authorities have had security clashes with union protests, including those of Haft Tappeh workers, and have sentenced some protesting workers and members of the Haft Tappeh workers' union, including labor activist Ali Nejati, to long prison terms.

These protests continue to this day, with Omid Asadbeigi, the former CEO of Nishker Haft Tepe, currently the primary defendant in a case of disrupting the currency and monetary system, in which his indictment includes the charge of organized leadership of disrupting the country's currency and monetary system through major currency smuggling and unauthorized transactions in state currencies.

As Iran faces an economic crisis and labor protests continue, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry recently announced that the Islamic Republic will continue “its economic cooperation” with Syria. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has also declared that one of his government’s main foreign policy goals is to return the Syrian people to a normal life.

The Islamic Republic continues to spend in Syria and other countries, while the Iranian people have repeatedly called on the authorities to address the precarious economic situation within Iran in their protests, with the slogan "Leave Syria alone, think about us."

The United States has repeatedly condemned Iran's security crackdown on workers. The US State Department's Persian Twitter account recently posted a message saying that "the Islamic Republic regime could have paid the salaries of workers in Iran with the money it spent in Syria."

Source: Voice of America