IRANIAN sugarcane workers staged their 29th day of strike action today in a dispute over unpaid wages and a demand for their factory to be returned to the public sector.<\/p>\n
The workers at the Haft Tappeh sugarcane factory in Shush, south-western Iran, walked out on June 12 after they had gone nearly three months without wages.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of them have taken to the streets to protest, saying that they have been forced to \u201cborrow\u201d bread from bakeries.<\/p>\n
They also blamed Iran\u2019s clerical regime for the dire state of the economy, chanting \u201cwe are hungry\u201d and anti-government slogans.<\/p>\n
Workers are also pressing for improved terms and conditions and the reinstatement of trade unionists sacked for their activities at the country\u2019s largest producer of white sugar.<\/p>\n
During similar strikes two years ago, trade unionists were arrested and tortured by the authorities.<\/p>\n
The Haft Tappeh factory was founded in 1961 and produced as much as 100,000 tons of sugar a year.<\/p>\n
But it has been the site of labour unrest, firstly when a recession struck in 2006 after the tariff on sugar imports was scrapped and again when the company was privatised in 2016.<\/p>\n
The 24,000-hectare complex was bought by businessmen Mehrdad Rostami and Omid Assadbeigi at auction for 218 billion tomans (about \u00a340 million), around 10 per cent of the estimated value.<\/p>\n
Since then, the plant has fallen into disrepair and ruin, amid allegations that huge amounts of money were being embezzled by the new owners.<\/p>\n
Mr Assadbeigi is currently standing trial on charges of currency misconduct. He has admitted in court that he bribed Khuzestan province Governor Gholamreza Shariati by paying his wife $200,000.<\/p>\n
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers\u2019 Associations offered solidarity to the strikers and called on the government to pay the workers\u2019 wages.<\/p>\n