Iranian Sugar Workers' Union Needs Your Support

international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Monday February 23, 2009 10:42 by pat c

In southern Iran an independent workers union is defending a legal case taken against them by the Revolutionary Court and they need your support.

In June 2008, 5,000 workers at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Plantation and Industry Company in the city of Shush formed an independent trade union following a 46-day strike. Official organizations created by the government (Workers House and Islamic Labour Council) have for years utterly failed to protect the workers and their conditions. The Haft Tapeh workers have had to resort to repeated strike action to fight for their basic rights, including regular payment of wages.

The strike began when thousands of workers from every section of the plant downed tools to protest after not being paid for two months. A petition to the provincial labour department with thousands of signatures triggered mass arrests and repeated attacks by police, security forces and Revolutionary Guards. A mass demonstration on 16 June by workers and their families ending at an assembly which elected officers of an independent trade union. The Haft Tapeh union is now a member of the The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF).

Now the Iranian government is trying to crush the union through lengthy prison sentences for 5 elected leaders, charged with acting against "national security" in connection with last year's strike and the formation of the union. The five leaders are Ali Nejati, President, Feridoun Nikoufard, Vice President, Mohammed Heydari Mehr, Representative for Industry Affairs, Ghorban Alipour, Secretary, and Jalil Ahmadi, Member of the union executive committee.

The 5 elected union leaders were charged with acting against national security on 20 December, 2008 and .The IUF and unions worldwide have condemned these charges as groundless and called on the government to immediately and unconditionally drop the charges.. Other independent union leaders in Iran, including Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi of the Tehran Bus Union, have been imprisoned on similar charges.

The verdict was scheduled to be delivered on February 17, in a typically despotic and arbitrary manner by the court - the prosecutor did not even bother to appear before the judge nor present serious "evidence". However, the determination of the union leaders and their lawyer turned what was scheduled to have been a perfunctory sentencing into a five hour debate whose only conclusion was to continue the hearing.

Additional pressure is urgently needed to get the authorities to unconditionally drop all charges. Send a message to the Iranian state and judicial authorities, calling on them to immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against the Haft Tapeh union leaders:

Supreme Leader:
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei
Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street
Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Iran
Email: info@leader.ir

President
His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
The Presidency, Palestine Avenue, Azerbaijan Intersection, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
via website: www.president.ir/email

The Head of the Judiciary:
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St.,Vali Asr Ave.,
South of Serah-e Jomhouri,
Tehran, Iran
Email: info@dadgostary-tehran.ir