Workers of the Behshahr Chintz-Making textile factory in Mazandaran province had not been paid for 27 months, with arrears of about 5 billion tomans. After a protest on 16 April 2003 that the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran reported drew up to 30,000 workers and residents into the streets of Behshahr, the factory's textile workers began a hunger strike on 15 May 2003. The Canadian Labour Congress wrote to President Mohammad Khatami on 30 May 2003 and CUPE Local 2497 on 12 June 2003 after officials offered to pay only 200 million tomans immediately and to postpone the rest to an unspecified date, an offer the workers rejected.