Reporting by PMOI/MEK
' src='https://imageEn.mojahedin.org/images/2019/9/8cfdb84e-872b-4589-821a-04a1859c48b3_690.jpg?c=1&width=230' title='Mahmoud Sadeghi, member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament)'/><p class='subtitles'><b>Mahmoud Sadeghi, member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament)</b></p>)
Iran, September 26, 2019—Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), acknowledges the fact that labor protests are escalating in numerous cities across the country. “We are currently witnessing daily protests by workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company and the HEPCO industrial complex in Arak,” he said on Wednesday.
Employees of #Iran's HEPCO industrial complex are demanding what is rightfully theirs & refusing to succumb to regime threats.#IranProtests https://t.co/Oly3u4U0Th
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) September 19, 2019
“Currently, the problems resulting from wrong policies have placed the country facing problems and the workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company and Arak are paying the price. To have their voices heard, these workers are resorting to various measures such as blocking rail tracks,” he added.
Sadeghi also acknowledged the fact factories in Iran under the mullahs’ rule are controlled by incompetent regime clerics. “Some company transfers are quite interesting. I don’t understand how members of the cleric's society, who should be focused on teaching their students, can manage an industrial complex? This is what we have been witnessing recently in Arak and Dena Tire Company,” Sadeghi explained.
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A group of employees of the HEPCO Company in the city of Arak, central Iran, held a protest rally on Saturday, September 7, outside the company's main office building. The rallying workers were holding signs and demanding the status of their company stocks/shares be clarified with the officials.
"We HEPCO workers are shouting loud and clear that we are demanding the clarification of our share-holding status and ownership of the HEPCO Company after five years of being left in limbo. We're not looking for just a new company manager," the sign read.
It is worth noting that Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani issued a Privatization Organizatnoi statement appointing Abolfazl Roghani as the new director-general of the HEPCO holding company.
In the city of Shush of Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, official employees of the Haft Tappeh sugar cane company held a protest rally for the second consecutive day on Saturday. These workers are demanding paychecks for the previous two months. Furthermore, the company management has to this day various pensions promised to the workers since 2014. These officials are also refusing to sign and confirm these workers' employee contracts, deliberately leaving them in a state of limbo and allowing company officials to fire them at their will.
In other news about Haft Tappeh workers, a so-called court in Tehran has sentenced seven Haft Tappeh sugar cane workers to a total of 110 years behind bars and 74 lashes each. This ruling was issued by Mohammad Moghiseh, head of Branch 28 of Tehran's so-called courts. Each of the workers is sentenced to six to 18 years in jail.
These protests rallies and the regime's response of issuing heavy jail sentences against workers demanding their rights are a window into the mullahs' concerns over an explosive society in Iran.
Ahmad Alamalhoda, representative of Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Mashhad, a very important city in northeast Iran, expressed his deep concerns in this regard. "They want to throw the ball into [Khamenei's] court and place the people against him," he said in reference to the failed nuclear negotiations in obtaining a $15 billion credit line from France, parallel to increasing popular protests across the country.
"Europe and the United States are not two different issues. They are of one trend of crimes. They have been playing us for sixteen months now…," he said on Friday, September 6. "They have been discussing INSTEX for nine months now. At the end of the day, they said we'll place $15 billion in a credit bank and provided a fistful of nonsense and lies. [On Thursday], the French Finance Minister traveled from Paris to Washington to have discussions with the Americans and see if they agree with this plan or not? You see their devious games. For God's sake, we are living in a world of communications, communications development, and a digital world. If they want the U.S.' opinion, does the French Finance Minister truly need to go to Washington? They're kicking the can down the down the road. They're deceiving us… And if [Khamenei] seeks to prevent some measures, they are throwing the ball of the country's problems into his court and therefore placing the people against the leader," he continued.
