In a message to the workers of Qa'emshahr yesterday, the NCR President Massoud Rajavi saluted the protesters and called on the nation and the blue -collar workers to rise to their support.
The protest by No.1 Textile workers began on Saturday, September 9, simultaneous with the arrival in the northern Mazandaran Province of Hassan Habibi, first deputy to Rafsanjani. The security forces of the northern provinces were put on full alert. Sardar Rouyanian, security forces commander in Mazandaran, and all of the forces' commanders are presently in Qa'emshahr. The provincial governor, Gernamayeh, members of Mazandaran's Security Council, and Mazandaran's general director for intelligence, Niaz, held a security council session last night at 9:30 at the governor's office.
The Iranian Resistance calls for immediate intervention by international human rights organizations to save the lives of the imprisoned workers.
Qa'emshahr's No.1 Textile workers have held repeated strikes and sit-ins since March demanding their monthly wages. The factory's former manager paid one month's pay last time the workers went on strike on August 21. He promised to pay the remaining three months' pay by September 6. But with the sale of the factory, the new manager dismissed the workers and did not give them their unpaid wages.
Various Iranian cities have been the scene in recent months of workers' strikes in protest to the non-payment of their wages. Reports from Mazandaran indicate that the No. 2 and 3 textile factories in Qa'emshahr are also on the verge of being shut down. Inside reports from the regime say the production of Mazandaran Textile (No.2 and 3) was 47 million meters in 1984 but has dropped to 18 million in 1994. The factory is heavily indebted and continuation of the present trend will lead in a few months to a complete halt in its operation and workers' dismissals.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris September 10, 1995
Back Home