Haft Tappeh workers go on strike for seventh day

Reports indicate that Haft Tapeh sugarcane workers have gone on strike for the seventh day at the factory.

The Haft Tapeh Workers' Union announced on its Telegram channel that Haft Tapeh workers went on strike on Sunday, July 25, in the factory premises. Among the workers' demands was the retake of the factory from the private sector.

The Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers' Union has also condemned "any threats, intimidation, and conspiracy" against protesting workers.

Previously, Haft Tapeh workers had repeatedly held protest rallies to address their rights and demands.

Workers at the Haft Tappeh sugarcane complex went on strike for 21 days in November 2018 to protest the non-payment of their arrears. The protesters believed that the private sector employer was incapable of managing the factory and that the workers' council could run the Haft Tappeh sugarcane complex better than the employer.

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.

While Iran faces an economic crisis and labor protests continue, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry has announced that the Islamic Republic will continue its “economic cooperation” with Syria. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also declared in February 2018 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, while the Iranian people have repeatedly called on the authorities in their protests, with the slogan "Leave Syria alone, think about us," to address the precarious economic situation within Iran instead of the situation in Syria.

Also, in recent years, Islamic Republic authorities have had security clashes with union protests, including those of Haft Tappeh workers.

The United States has repeatedly condemned Iran's security crackdown on workers, and previously the US State Department's Persian Twitter account had posted a message stating 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