The participants demanded their unpaid salaries and benefits. The State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs' suppressive police – fearing the spread of demonstration to other parts of the city cordoned the protesting workers.
"I have worked in the textile factory for 18 years. After all, I have to sit outside the factory and go home at the end of the day empty handed," said a worker at the gathering.
In the past year, it has been the workers who are facing pay cuts by the hand picked managements in the usually privatized factories. However, it is rapidly catching up with the other sectors of the Iranian work force.
Over past year thousands of workers went on strike over unpaid salaries in major Iranian factories such as Sugar Cane factory in the southern city of Shoosh, Iran Khodro and Kiyan-tire in suburban Tehran.