Isfahan's steel mill factory workers stage symbolic hunger strike
ncr
03-Mar-2009 (4 comments)

Workers at the Isfahan Steel Mill Factory...have begun a symbolic hunger strike on Saturday, February 28, 2009, which will continue for two weeks. They will not have the meals served at the factory premises... On December 2, 2008, some 1,000 courageous workers...set up a blockade on the main Isfahan to Shahr-e Kurd highway in protests over pay disputes. In the past two months, workers in factories and work shops in various cities...have staged protests against lack of job security,

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rosie is roxy is roshan

Questionable but important

by rosie is roxy is roshan on Tue Mar 03, 2009 06:41 PM PST

They can't really do a full-blown strike right now because in the past two weeks there has been an intensive wave of arrests and floggings of workers involved in last years' Haft Tapeh sugar workers strike and in the May Day celebrations. Just doing this is really stickng their necks out, especially for the union leaders.


Balatarin
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rosie is roxy is roshan

Okay so here's the deal, it's the damndest thing..

by rosie is roxy is roshan on Wed Mar 04, 2009 01:11 AM PST

it's on the socialist sites. And it is in of all places an Indian steel industry trade paper, steelguru, and they must've had a legitimate source..

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT

it's on GOOGLE for them and when you get there you get the homepage and I can't find it...but there are so many articles, so it's possible I'm not seeing it, but my suspicion is that they removed it because they found out it wasn't true..but hen where did they get it from?

but no matter, i wrote the Coordinating Committee and asked them. They oughtta know I'll let you know when I find out.


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rosie is roxy is roshan

The reason I figured it's true is because I first saw the

by rosie is roxy is roshan on Wed Mar 04, 2009 01:07 AM PST

plans for a real strike being announced for Saturday on one of the Socialist websites. Following there werer three more arrests of Haft Tapeh unionists designed to go in between their trial and sentencing. So I assumed it must be true because it made sense that they would have to scale the strike down under those circumstances. And then this feed says the symbolic strike began Saturday. I was queasy about posting from this site because they seemed...strange..but I didn't know they were affiliated with the MKO. The socialist organiation also carried the hunger strike item, they couldn't possibly be affiliated with MKO, they're completely secular.

The problem that I have is that all the available information on the workers movement in English seems to be from socialist and trade union websites. And a little human irghts ones but they're very incomplete. There simply doesn't seem to be a regular news source in English with Iranian labor information and I have been trying to find one for days.

Today I got in touch with the Coordinating Committee to Form Workers Unions in Iran which as you may know is not the only but the most important union organiinizing group in Iran. However our e-mail exchange was restricted to questions I had about two women who'd been flogged for participating in last year's May Day celebrations. One got seventy lashes which is an extraordinarily hefty punishment. I found the Isfahan item after but unfortunately their website is no longer published in English only Persian, so I couldn't check this there either. So I decided to post it.

but to give you an example of the problems, there were two conflicting numbers circulatting on the floggings, one that one woman got 70 and the other that she got 15. So I wrote and asked the Committee and they sent me in the same e-mail copies of two releases, one with the 15 and one with the 70. So I wrote them again and they said oh thank you for pointing out the mistake, it is seventy, we'll inform our contacts...

I simply have no other choice but to post from websites of organizations and to deal with the communication problems therein. 

as for dropping a steel ball on my toe, it's not a problem. I have nine more. Whether this item is true or not it is true that five members of the Haft Tapeh union have been on trial for two weeks during which two more have been arrested and one escaped and disappeared. And that the May Day flogings occurred within the same period, two women with suspended sprison sentences, one 70, the other 15 lashes, and two men with prison sentences as well as I think thirty and forty lashes. Obviouly these arrests and floggings are being timed with the Haft Tapeh trial as a scae tactic.

So I'll just keep on hobbling about with my missing toe, and let me know when you think there's a problem. That's all I can do. No one else here seems to have noticed the worker persecutins going on these past two weeks. The Coordinating Committee has issued an international satement that the labor movement is in grave danger. So..I'll hobble.

And I'll check with the Committee if the news isn't on workers-iran.org which seems to be the best English language site.

 


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Ostaad

FYI

by Ostaad on Tue Mar 03, 2009 08:04 PM PST

The NCR is not a news organization. It is the propaganda arm of a terrorist organization, of course some Brits disagree, called Saazemaanheh Mojaahedineh Khalgh.I have looked but not found this item mentioned by other news organizations.  Have you seen it reported by an independent news organization because this is huge if true?

BTW, rosei watch those balls of steel, someone might drop one on your big toe.


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