Protest Against Non-Payment of Wages Continue Iran, Shahre Rey, May 27, 2001 - About 1000 workers from Chintz Making Factory in Rey (near Tehran) staged a protest rally in front of the headquarters of the Mostazafan Foundation, a large corporation created by the Islamic regime that controls a large section of Iran’s industries. According to the “Iran Students’ News Agency (ISNA)”, workers declared that 1700 personnel of the factory have not received their pay for the past 3 months. Workers have also been protesting the privatization of the factory, as a result of which 3 men have purchased 90 percent of the factory shares while the remaining 10 percent belongs to the retirees. The new management has shut down all operations in the past 7 months. Workers are targeting the Mostazafan Foundation because it carried out the whole process of privatization without any negotiations with workers’ and regardless of workers’ satisfaction. Workers vowed if they don’t receive prompt response from the Foundation, they would soon launch another protest, this time alongside with their families. Iran, Isfahan, May 27, 2001- A number of Workers and veteran employees of the Isfahan University, the third largest city in Iran, staged a protest rally in front of the Head Office of the University to protest against the non-payment of their wages in the past 2 months. According to the “Iranian Students’ News Agency”, about 60 contract workers, mostly from service units, whose contracts had not been renewed by the University, were among the protesters. During the protest, the Financial and Executive Deputy of the University spoke to the workers, emphasizing that the university officials would continue to try resolving these issues of workers. However, he continued his response to workers by threatening protesters and intimidating them to name all the promoters of the protest so they can take “firm actions” against them. Non-payment of wages has become a major problem faced by workers in the past couple of years across Iran. Hundreds of thousands of workers from various industries in Iran have not been receiving their pay in the last 2 to 36 months. Workers have been escalating their protest actions against this and other violations of their basic labour rights since the beginning of the Iranian New Year in March; however, they have been getting empty promises, threats and violent treatment by security forces.