The internal Board Election of Haft Tapeh Workers’ Syndicate AND the management threats against the new syndicate

The first meeting of the newly elected Board Members of Haft Tapeh Workers’ Syndicate (Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers’ Syndicate) was held, with full participation, on October 29, 2008. In this meeting, a number of positions were filled through an internal Board election with the observation of one of the elected inspectors of the union. The results were as follows:

1- Ali Nejati, President of the Executive Board;

2- Feridoun Nikoufard, Vice-President of the Executive Board;

3- Nejat Dehli, Treasurer;

4- Reza Rakhshan, Responsible for Public Relations and Education and contact person with the Agricultural Office;

5- Rahim Beshagh , representative for commercial affairs,

6- Ali Sharifi and Mohammad Heydari Mehr, representatives on industry affairs;

7- Ghorban Alipour, Secretary

According to the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers’ Syndicate, on November 10, 2008, the elected representatives of the syndicate met with Mr. Yaghoub Shafiee, from the company’s management, to discuss some work-related issues including issues faced by contract workers; however, the management refused to discuss any of these issues with them. Instead, they said that the ministries of Industry, Labour as well Intelligence have informed the employers that they do not recognize the syndicate of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Workers. Therefore according to government authorities it is not legally recognized and they may face legal prosecution. The syndicate has insisted they are thr genuine representatives of workers and have every right to choose their own labour organization without government interferes.

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*The Canadian Union of Postal Workers Sends Solidarity Greetings to Haft Tapeh Workers’ Syndicate

October 29, 2008

To Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company Workers’ Syndicate

On behalf of the 56,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Woprkrs, I  am writing this letter to congratulate you for your successful general election of your executive board members and other representatives for the first time in more than two decades. I want to thank you for your courageous efforts to form an independent labour organization. We are expressing our solidarity and support.

We will also be sending this message to the Iranian government and asking the Government to respect workers’ rights to organize, assemble and strike, put an end to persecution of labour activists and not to interfere in the affairs of independent workers’ organizations.

In solidarity,

Denis Lemelin

National President

*See the Farsi translation of this letter in the Haft Tapeh Syndicate’s website in Iran: (http://7tapeh.blogfa.com). We urge other labour activists/ organizations to send similar solidarity messages to the Syndicate as they are under extreme pressures and systemic oppression. For more information, contact [email protected].

For more information, contact [email protected] or [email protected]

International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran (IASWI)

Background Information: www.workers-iran.org