More than 300 workers at one of Iran's oldest factories blocked a major highway west of Tehran to protest working conditions and their unpaid salaries, newspapers reported on Monday. The workers from the Aladdin gas stove factory burned tires and set up barricades on Sunday to protest what one laborer called the "indifference" of authorities to their plight.
Another worker, cited by the Doran-e Emrouz newspaper, said they had not been paid in four months. Both private and state-owned factories have been under threat of going out of business in recent months.
Majid Ansari, an MP and close ally of President Mohammad Khatami, recently warned that the unemployment crisis was threatening both society and the ideals of the Islamic revolution. The official unemployment rate is 15 percent though unofficial estimates put the figure higher. — (AFP, Tehran)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
