The employees of the Heavy Equipment Production Company (HEPCO), who gathered on Monday to protest their delayed payments were brutally attacked by riot police and other agents of security organizations in Markazi province’s Arak city, central Iran.
Labor news sources in Iran including the ‘Campaign to Defend Haft Tappeh Detainees’ reported on Tuesday that at least 40 workers were arrested and 20 others injured by security forces.
The workers blocked the North-South railroad and urged the company’s authorities to address their demands, but riot police and plainclothes agents attacked the protestors.
Mohammad Taqi Abayee, the deputy director of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare organization of Markazi province said on Monday that, “the protesting workers had blocked the North-South railroad for several hours,” he also said, “security forces stormed into the area and removed the blockages of the railroad.”
Meanwhile, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported that it has been trying to talk with the authorities of Markazi province regarding the detained HEPCO protestors, but the authorities declined to comment.
