Producer: David Aram
News headlines from some labor protests in September, 2017
– dismissed workers of the Persian Gulf Red Star Refinery after two days protest gathering in Tehran
, returned to Bandar Abbas with promise of Goverment,s labor ministry . And they continued their protests in Bandar Abbas on September 27th. The protest of these workers is due to unemployment and postponement of payment of 5 months’ wages.
– On September 25, a group of workers from the village water and sewage company in Kermanshah gathered in protest of their unpaid wages and for their insurance right in front of Islamic parliament in Tehran.
-September 26, a group of power plant workers in Behbahan combined cycle gathered in protest of their unpaid wages and their insurance in front of this Powerhouse.
– On September 25, a group of Ahwazi fuel station fire workers gathered in front of the Iranian National Oil Products Distribution Company (NPO) in anger for lack of job security under the name of privatization.
-On September 25, 200 workers from the parks and green spaces of the Yazd Municipality gathered in protest against their two months’ unpaid wages in front of the building of the city council and the municipality.
-On September 26 workers of Ball Bearing in Tabriz gathered for their six months unpaid wages.
-On September 24, about 200 seasonal workers of Haft Tapeh gathered at the Haft Tapeh Industrial Complex in protest of the failure to fulfill their insurance claims by the employer in front of the Khuzestan Governorate building.
-On September 24, a crowd of workers from the Esfandoukh Chromic Mine gathered in protest against the unemployment of three of their colleagues and failure to pay part of their paychecks to the governor’s office and the Kerman General Office.
-On September 24, Sirjan No. 3 workers gathered in protest against unemployment and non-renewal of their contracts with the governor of the city.
– On September 25, the Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company convened a protest assembly in support of Reza Shahabi, of member of the executive board of the syndicate, in front of governments labour ministry building . In this protest gathering e workers of the bus company, the students, and a number of teachers participated. They were chanting : Shahabi Shahabi should be free, the freedom of the Shahabi is our immediate demand, the Prisoner Worker must be free, the worker Does not accept this. , Shabbeh, Beheshti, Abdi, must be freed, prisoner worker, prisoner teacher, must be freed. The worker, Student, Teacher United, Long live, Azarab, Hepco, Iran’s Labor Minister is the enemy of the workers.
In This gathering protesters expressed their solidarity with Reza Shahabi, with the workers and teachers and with the workers of Azarab and Hepco, and protested against the repression of the government.
Reza Shahabi struck a hunger strike on August 8 in protest of his return to jail and condemning him to 968 of imprisonment. His physical condition was reported to be severe. On September27, after requesting by the Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs United Bus Company, the union of the workers of Haft Tapeh Cane suger industry and after promising the judicial authorities to address his demands.
ended his hunger strike.
On September 26, Mozaffar Salehnia, a member of the board of the the Free Union of Workers of Iran , was arrested at his office in Sanandaj.
On the other hand, On September26 Tehran’s Prosecutor’s Office issued announced that the confiscation of the bail of Jafar Azimzadeh, the executive board of the Free Union of workers of Iran, had been issued and within 10 days it”s confiscation would be finalized.
On September 24, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, a well-known worker who was arrested in a protest rally on September 13 in support of Gohardasht political prisoners and their protest against the plight of prisons, was released.
Valeh Zamani was a member of the board of directors of the Alborz province Painters Syndicate, another worker activist that had been arrested on September 22, was released on September29.
On September 25, Support letter of presedent of Danish Union of Workers’ to Khamenei and Rohani :
On behalf of 280,000 Danish workers, including transport workers, we strongly urge you to take all necessary steps for our immediate and unconditional release of our colleague Reza Shahabi, a member of the board of directors and treasury The Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran Bus Company, which is imprisoned on August 9, 2017.
Reza and our other union colleagues have been imprisoned for their work in defence of the interests of workers, and this is a trampling up of international conventions on labour rights and human rights.
– Joe Hartman, Secretary-General of the Union of Trade Unions of Vancouver and Suburbs, on behalf of 60,000 workers, in an open letter to the Rohany, protested to trample on the basic rights of workers in Iran.
In this letter Joe Hartman with Referring to specific cases, such as the arrest of Reza Shahabi, a member of the board of directors of the Syndicate and his disturbing situation in the prison, The issuance of a brutal whipping sentence for Shapour Ehsani Rad,and the arrest of the three Protest teacher Esmail Abdi, Mohsen Omrani and Mahmoud Beheshti And the issuance of prison sentences for Taher Ghaderzadeh and Reza Moslem, two other teachers, and Pressure on Jafar Azimzadeh president of the Free Workers Union of Iran to seize his bail for returning him to jail, and Ali Nejati of the Haft Tape Sugarcane company, demanded an end to the ongoing violations of the workers’ basic rights and the immediate release of the arrested.
Workers of the world united
Workers Solidarity Network of the Middle East and North Africa (Coordinator: shahla.daneshfar2@gamil.com