At least five thousand contract workers in twelve South Pars refineries went on strike and gathered in Asaluyeh in the largest labor protest in recent years. This gathering was held despite pressure and threats against the workers. South Pars is Iran’s largest gas hub and Asaluyeh is a major industrial zone in the south of the country.
The Council for Organizing Protests of Informal Oil Workers (Third Parties) reported that on Tuesday, December 9, these workers stopped working and, despite various threats, held a “magnificent march on the street leading to the Asaluyeh governor’s office.” This council represents informal and contract workers in the oil sector.
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Similarly, the Free Union of Iranian Workers described this gathering as “one of the largest protest assemblies in the history of Iran’s oil industry over nearly the past five decades.”
While labor sources report the participation of at least five thousand contract workers in the strike and gathering, the state-run ILNA news agency omitted any mention of the number of protesters, and Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), merely wrote that “a group of workers” had taken part. ILNA is a government-controlled labor news outlet, and Fars is a major IRGC-linked propaganda agency.
The Council for Organizing Protests of Informal Oil Workers stated that one day before the gathering, extensive efforts were made to intimidate workers, including “direct messages from the South Pars Gas Complex public relations office sent to workers’ phones” and “direct threats from the security units of various refineries” warning them about the “consequences of attending.”
This point was also omitted in the reports published by ILNA and Fars.
According to the council, from early Tuesday morning, in addition to the South Pars entry points that have been controlled by the Special Zone Security since the twelve-day war, all entrances to Asaluyeh and the streets leading to the governor’s office were placed under the control of Iran’s regime police and security forces. Vehicles carrying workers were blocked from passing.
Despite this, contract workers and their families reached the gathering site on foot through various routes.
According to reports, the contract workers demanded “eliminating intermediary contractors, reforming the wage equalization system, revising and fully implementing the job classification plan, applying the rotation schedule of two weeks of work and two weeks of rest for administrative and support staff, and resolving the status of non-owner drivers of rental vehicles.”
Other demands included “regulating the status of safety support workers and enforcing labor law according to workplace norms, payment of camp allowance, and providing flight transportation conditions for workers.”
The council added that after the gathering ended, some security units prevented workers from entering the refineries, and several workers were summoned by the Special Zone Security and other regime security agencies.
Contract workers in Asaluyeh have repeatedly protested unmet demands. Most recently, on November 11, more than three thousand contract workers in the South Pars Gas Complex gathered in front of its central building in Asaluyeh.
Support of a labor syndicate for the South Pars contract workers’ protest
The Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company announced on Tuesday that it “proudly and responsibly, in line with its class and trade duty,” supports the protest gathering of more than five thousand South Pars contract workers in Asaluyeh.
This independent labor organization, referring to the “clear slogans and completely legitimate and human demands” of the protest, called it “a clear symbol of the awareness, solidarity, and firm resolve of Iran’s working class to obtain its violated rights.”
Three days of strike in North Drilling Company
The Telegram channel “Afkar-e Naft” reported on Tuesday that a “three-day simultaneous strike took place in nine onshore and two offshore rigs of the North Drilling Company.”
The channel listed the workers’ demands as “payment of overdue wages and bonuses, establishment of supplementary insurance, signing official employment contracts, and dozens of other issues.”
According to the report, the main owners of the North Drilling Company are Energy Gostar Sina and the Mostazafan Foundation, a major economic arm of Iran’s regime.
Third day of strike by Shadgan Steel workers
The Free Union of Iranian Workers reported that the strike by Shadgan Steel workers in Khuzestan Province entered its third day on Tuesday.
According to the report, the strike began in protest of the employer’s broken promises regarding production bonuses and job classification.
In recent years, protests by workers and other wage earners in Iran have increased significantly. Causes include low wages, months-long nonpayment of wages and insurance contributions, privatization, layoffs, and the continued presence of intermediary contracting companies.
Iran’s regime has tried to stop the spread of such protests by intensifying security and judicial crackdowns, but due to the country’s severe economic crisis, it has failed to achieve this goal.
