German company Knauf has come under fire after it sent a letter to all of its employees in Iran, threatening to immediately fire anyone participating in the demonstrations against the regime in Tehran.

On July 21, Knauf sent out a letter to its three subsidiaries operating in Iran. The document is addressed "to all employees of Knauf Iran, Knauf Gatch and Iran Gatch," threatening that if anyone from the company "gets caught demonstrating against the current government, he or she will be immediately dismissed."

The letter is signed by Isabel Knauf, a member of the founding family of the Bavaria-based construction materials company. She's on the supervisory board of Knauf's operations in Iran.

When news about the letter surfaced in the German media, it immediately triggered criticism and condemnation, and Iranians living in Germany have bombarded the company with threatening calls and e-mails, company spokesman Joerg Schanow said on Friday.

Schanow confirmed the letter was sent but he called the wording of the document very "unfortunate." He said it didn't correspond with the company's overall policy but declined to give a detailed explanation.

Knauf "strictly apolitical"?

In the letter, Isabel Knauf justified the threat to dismiss staff by saying that Knauf was "strictly apolitical" and reminded "all employees that they are not only representing their private opinion when being politically active, but that their actions could fall back negatively on our Knauf companies in Iran."

The Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade declined to comment on this particular case but said that "in general, German companies should differentiate between business and politics."

Germany's foreign office on Friday could not confirm the case but said that it rejected the idea of companies intervening in such a manner.

"We would not welcome this news and do not approve of it," a spokesman for the foreign office said. Berlin has been a strong critic of Tehran over the crackdown on pro-opposition demonstrators.

Knauf possibly pressurized by Tehran

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, however, there may be concrete reason behind Knauf's decision to send out the controversial letter. The newspaper says that a senior German-Iranian employee of the company had been arrested during earlier demonstrations. It says the Tehran authorities told Knauf that their executive would only be released if it forced its employees to refrain from any involvement in the pro-opposition protests.

Iran has been rocked by continued demonstrations since the June 12 presidential elections returned the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to power. The opposition says the elections were rigged and has demanded a new vote.

Germany is one of Iran's most important trading partners, with around 85 German companies operating in the country. Knauf has been in Iran for several decades. Worldwide, the company employs around 22.000 people.


ai/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Chuck Penfold


http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4533152,00.html

they were forced to do so by IR. since one of their workers were prisoned..''but now that hes free theyve pulled the statement back

Really? Good to know...

No one can be "forced" to sell their soul to the devil Toofi joon. There are certain people in the world, like Ghotbi and these people at Knauf for whom MONEY is the only measure of self-worth. They remind me of the English saying "those who stand for nothing, fall for everything".

No one can be "forced" to sell their soul to the devil Toofi joon. There are certain people in the world, like Ghotbi and these people at Knauf for whom MONEY is the only measure of self-worth. They remind me of the English saying "those who stand for nothing, fall for everything".

they were man. They were told the only way for IR to free their worker from prison was if they issued that statement. so they did & IR freed the worker, & then they pulled it back..

they did what was best for their iranian prisoned worker..

Oh okay. But are they still doing business with IR?

Oh okay. But are they still doing business with IR?

yeah....but u must also think that its a company that brings many jobs to iranian workers.... but I do agree with you that it shoud be 100% economic sanction from EU.

Yeah, even if EU's official stance is not economic sanctions, individuals and companies can take action on their own. We recently had (pre-election) an opportunity to do a large co-generation project with Iran and our representative called last week from Iran that they're very anxious to proceed. However, I felt we had a moral obligation to the people of Iran, not to carry out any business with this regime at the moment and told him not to make any promisses. And this is one of those projects I could have retired on, but there are things that are more important than money IMHO.

Well, now the US has accepted Ahmadinejad as the president:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2009/08/090804_wkf-usa-ahmadi-elected.shtml

Forget about the EU stop doing business with Iran.