Thousands of workers from Haft Tapeh sugarcane factory gathered in front of municipality of Shush in the Iranian southwestern province of Khuzestan on Sunday, demanding their delayed salaries.
“The workers of Haft Tapeh have been on strike for two weeks,” a labor activist who represents the workers told Avatoday in condition of anonymity. “The problems of the factory began in 1991 when Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani privatized most of the governmental factories,” he continued.
Haft Tape Sugarcane Factory was formed in 1975. According to the rules of the factory since its establishment until the day it was privatized, all the retiring-workers of the factory were able to bring one of their family members to works instead of them under a rule named “son instead of father.”
“They (the owners of the factory and security forces) did not get one of our slogans serious: neither threatening nor jailing do not frighten us,” a protestor shouts in front of the Shush municipality.
The representative of the workers said that the rule of “son instead of father” was removed and the benefit of all the workers decreased dramatically so “the first demand of the workers is to nationalize the factory.”
The workers are also protesting over delayed salaries. “The workers have not received their salaries for years,” he continued.
According to the information obtained by Avatoday, Naser Makarem Shirazi which is known as the King of Sugar in Iran is the owner of the Haft Tapeh Factory.
Avatoday previously published information on Shirazi’s 17-million-dollar bank account.
