Conflicting Reports on End of Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Complex Workers’ Protest

Conflicting reports have been released about the end of occupational protests by workers at the Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Complex following negotiations with the new management of this industrial facility. The head of the Hope faction in the Islamic Consultative Assembly called for avoiding security and legal action against workers.

On Sunday, December 2 (November 24), conflicting reports about the end of occupational protests by Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Complex workers were published on Iranian media and social networks.

According to IRNA, after four weeks, on Sunday afternoon, “Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Complex workers activated their professional work by sounding the production siren in various departments”.

These workers’ protest against non-payment of wage claims and other demands of active and retired employees at this workplace lasted approximately 28 days.

Among the demands of the prolonged Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Complex workers’ protest were “payment of wage arrears, execution of employment contracts for 1,500 daily wage workers, determination of the factory’s status and repairs, implementation of job classification plan, payment of seasonal workers’ insurance claims, payment of retirement benefits for entitled workers, resolution of land division issues, and change of management”.

Following protest gatherings and successive marches by workers, some of them were detained. The Haft Tappeh Workers’ Syndicate Telegram channel reported the summoning of 20 protesting workers and threatening phone calls to other workers on Sunday.

The Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Agriculture and Industrial Complex was handed over to the private sector in late 2015. With more than half a century of history, this complex is considered the largest and oldest sugar production factory from sugar cane in Iran.

Arif Criticizes Security and Legal Treatment of Workers

The head of the Hope faction in the Islamic Consultative Assembly emphasized “the necessity of fundamentally solving workers’ problems” and called for avoiding security and legal treatment of workers.

Mohammad Reza Arif, head of the Hope faction in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, on Sunday, December 2, during a meeting with the board of directors of Tehran’s Retired Workers’ Association, while criticizing “security and legal treatment of workers,” called for “fundamental resolution of workers’ problems”.

Arif recalled that workers played a principal role in the victory of the Islamic Revolution and are now bearing the heaviest economic pressures, and for this reason, within the framework of law, they are seeking their rights.

The head of the Hope faction in the Islamic Consultative Assembly said: “In the current difficult and harsh conditions of the country, the heaviest economic pressure is on the working class and their demands must be addressed seriously. Some security and legal treatment of workers’ claims, who are pursuing their rights and entitlements within the framework of law, is not in harmony with the essence of the Islamic Revolution, and such treatment is glossing over the real issue.”

Demand for Formation of Legal Workers’ Organization

According to Karim Yavari, the director general of employment support and unemployment insurance at the Ministry of Cooperation, Labor and Social Welfare, among the demands of Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Agriculture and Industrial Complex workers were the formation of a legal workers’ organization and implementation of the job classification plan for workers for whom the plan has not been implemented.

The director general of employment support and unemployment insurance at the Ministry of Cooperation, Labor and Social Welfare said that based on “the order of the minister of cooperation, labor and social welfare and the follow-ups carried out with the presence of provincial officials at Haft Tappeh”, commitments have been made to workers.

Yavari emphasized that given the change of management and the beginning of new management’s work and the promise to pursue Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane Complex workers’ demands, these workers, after 28 days, “returned to the workplace and resumed their work and production activities so that, with coordination and cooperation with the new management, they can receive their arrears and claims from the proceeds of crop sales”.

According to Yavari, “a full-authority manager with formal notarial representation with full powers of purchase, sale, and settlement of workers’ problems” has been selected to manage Haft Tappeh.

Continuation of Ahvaz Steel Workers’ Protests

A group of Iran National Steel Group workers on Sunday, December 2, for the twenty-third consecutive day, protested the non-fulfillment of their demands by marching again from Naderi Street to the Khuzestan Governorate.

In videos posted on social networks, the Sunday protest gathering of steel workers can be seen. In this gathering, among other slogans, these were heard: “Inflation, high prices, answer us cleric”, “High prices, inflation are the result of people’s votes”, “Abandon Syria, think about our situation”, “Our shame, our state media”, and “We steel workers fight, fight against tyranny and oppression”.

IRNA quoted protesting workers as saying: “While three months of our wages have been delayed in payment, recently some government officials announced in the media the payment of two months of all workers’ wages, but to this moment no payment has been made.”

Karim Yavari, the director general of employment support and unemployment insurance at the Ministry of Cooperation, Labor and Social Welfare, on Sunday, regarding wage arrears of Ahvaz National Steel Group workers, said: “Within the next two days, approximately two thousand workers of this industrial facility will receive two months of their wages.”

Source: DW