Haft Tappeh workers gather to protest the arrest of their colleagues; detained workers go on hunger strike
Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers held a protest rally on Tuesday, November 4, to protest the continued arrest of four of their colleagues.
The Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers' Union announced this news on its Telegram channel that the workers had gathered for the fifth day in the company's premises to protest the illegal arrest of Ebrahim Abbasi Monjezi, Masoud Hayuri, Hamid Mobini, and Yousef Bahmani.
The union also condemned "any framing, threats, and intimidation of workers" and called for the immediate and unconditional release of those detained.
It was previously reported that four Haft Tapeh sugarcane workers were arrested by police after attending a protest rally on Thursday, November 29.
Esmaeil Bakhshi, a labor activist who himself was arrested not long ago, announced in a tweet the hunger strike of the arrested Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers, writing that these workers are on a hunger strike "to protest the continued illegal detention and the failure to process their case in the Shush city court."
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.
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: "The Islamic Republic's regime could have paid the salaries of workers in Iran with the money it spent in Syria."
Source: Voice of America
