Unpaid factory workers beat boss in Iran
TEHRAN, March 9 (AFP) - Workers in a northern Iranian textile factory
locked their boss in an office and beat him Tuesday following a protest
over plans to close the plant.
The director of the factory, in the town of Qahemshahr in the northern
province of Mazandaran, was held for an hour and beaten before police intervened
to free him, workers told AFP.
There was no immediate report on his condition.
Workers at the facility have been on strike for several months over
non-payment of their salaries. In November they attacked the previous director
and threw him out of the factory.
Many of Iran's industries are facing shutdowns because of the nation's
struggling economy.
Iran's textile factories, most of them located in Mazandaran province
along the Caspian Sea, are some of the oldest manufacturing facilities
in the country.
Iranian law does not explicitly recognise the right to strike but allows
employees to stop work while on site.
Workers' protests are becoming a more frequent occurrence in the Islamic
republic but are only rarely reported in the state-controlled media.
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