Iran regime arrests 24 protesting workers

According to the state-run media, the clerical regime's suppressive forces arrested a number of municipal workers who had gathered in the city of Ahwaz, in southwest Iran.

On Tuesday, June 14, ILNA news agency reported that following a protest gathering a day earlier by a group of district 4 municipality workers in Ahwaz, the repressive security forces arrested at least 24 workers.

According to the report, the workers said that they started the demonstration at around 8 a.m. outside the municipality building to protest against non-payment of their deferred salaries, which have not been paid since the beginning of the Persian year on March 20. They reported that at around 9 a.m. 24 workers were arrested.

The regime has dealt harshly with such protests in the past. It was previously reported that the clerical regime had carried out flogging punishments on 17 dismissed workers of Agh Dareh gold mine in West Azerbaijan Province in May 2016. The workers had gathered in 2014 to protest the dismissal of 350 colleagues in this gold mine.

The clerical regime’s court sentenced these 17 workers to 30 to 100 lashes each and some of them had to pay a fine of five million rials, or about 165 dollars. According to the workers’ lawyer, these anti-labor laws were implemented in late May.

The Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement on May 28 condemning the repressive behavior of the clerical regime towards deprived Iranian workers and said:

“The Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran calls on all international human rights organizations, labor rights institutes, syndicates, labor unions and the International Labor Organization to condemn the oppressive and criminal approach adopted by the mullahs’ regime against deprived Iranian workers who protested being fired from work and their unemployment. The Iranian regime responded to these protests by lashing, imprisoning and issuing fines against these protesters. The NCRI Labor Committee is calling for solidarity and supporting Iranian workers to see their most basic rights materialized."