Strike and demonstration by workers in Qa'emshahr disrupts city

After several weeks of demonstrations and protests by workers in Qa'emshahr's textile factories in northern Iran, yesterday, thousands of workers came out onto the streets. Group after group of people joined the protesting workers and declared support for their demands, chanting slogans against the regime's leaders and its anti-labor policies.

The demonstrators blocked off many streets in the city's eastern region and the highway from Qa'emshahr to Sari (capital of the northern Mazandaran province).

Although the city's governor tried yesterday to calm the situation by accepting the workers' demands, strikes and unrest continued today .

Last month, after months of strikes, the Organization for Social Insurance had pledged to pay the unemployment insurance for the workers of Qa'emshahr textile workers, overdue for 18 months. Reneging on the pledge led to strikes in recent weeks.

Qa'emshahr textiles is among Iran's biggest textile factories. With thousands of workers, it produces tens of millions of meters of cloth.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 11, 1999

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