Five Thousand Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers have been on strike since June 15. On July 14, four workers, Ebrahim Abbasi, Yousef Bahmani, Mohammad Khanifar, and Muslim Cheshmeh Khavar, were arrested during a protest rally in the main streets of Shoush town. The workers were arrested for protesting against poverty and high prices and for delaying the payment of their wages. Fortunately after widespread protests by their colleagues and supporters.the arrested workers were released on July 15 on bail.
The Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers have been on strike more than 30 days now. They started their strike on june 15, demanding the immediate payment of all their back payments, dismissal of the private sector, because in the eyes of the workers, the private sector and the likes of Asad Beigi, the former director of the company, are the most predatory part of the employers against the workers. In addition, they demand that the well known workers’ leader Ismail Bakhshi and the other fired workers return to work and that all the court cases against them be cancelled. The recent arrest of 4 protesting workers of this company shows that the government does not want to seek a rational solution to this crisis and doesn’t want to respond the legitimate demands of the workers. Along with the non-payment of 4 months of wages and the heavy financial pressure on the workers, the non-renewal of their medical insurance in the wake of the Corona crisis and the continuation of thefts and auctioning of the company’s cultivating lands are of the workers’ serious concerns. They want all these actions to be stopped immediately
The Islamic Republic, instead of responding to the legitimate demands of the Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers, resorted to threats and arrests and tried to disperse the united ranks of the workers in various ways. But the workers have serious and vital causes and they will not and cannot give up their demands.
The Campaign to free all jailed workers in Iran Free Them Now, calls on all workers unions and all humanitarian organizations around the world to support the 5,000 Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers by condemning the Islamic Republic and supporting the demands of the striking workers.
Campaign to Free Jailed Workers (Free Them Now)
16 July 2020
shahla.daneshfar2@gmail.com