NEWS & LETTERS, June - July 2008
Sugar workers in Iran risk all to form union
The 5000 workers at Iran's only sugar refinery, in Shush, have formed an independent union. This follows a 42-day strike that began March 5. A workers' petition protesting non-payment of wages was met with mass arrests by authorities and attacks by police and Revolutionary Guards.
The workers at Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Plantation and Industry Complex have staged numerous strikes over wages and safety conditions in the last few years. The Iranian authorities have met these labor actions with arrests and sometimes with public whippings of militant workers. In defiance of threats, the new union was founded June 16 at a mass public meeting of plant workers and their families.
At the same time, labor repression continues. Gholamreza Gholamhosseini, an executive board member of Tehran's independent bus drivers' union, Vahed Syndicate, was arrested while attempting to enter a Women's Day event co-sponsored by the bus company. He was ordered held in Evin Prison for an indefinite period despite not being charged with any crime. Vahed Syndicate activists Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi are currently held there as well.
The Vahed Syndicate sent a message of support to the new sugar workers' union. Before his arrest, Mansour Osanloo described what is happening among the Iranian people this way: "There are a variety of different movements in Iran right now. We have a student movement, a women's movement, a workers' movement, they are training and educating themselves. They try to work together, directly or indirectly, for solidarity."
--Gerry Emmett
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