Simultaneously with labor and professional protests in three Iranian cities, four worker and retiree organizations issued a statement supporting the demands of thousands of workers at the South Pars gas refineries and third-party contract workers over the past week.
Hundreds of workers at the “Pasargad Steel” factory in Kavar County, Fars Province, went on strike and gathered in front of the factory entrance on Saturday, December 13.
According to the state-run ILNA news agency, they protested their “low” wages and benefits and said: “Our livelihood is not being provided.”
5,000 Contract Workers Participate in Largest Union Protest in Iran in Recent Years
According to the report, “reviewing the wage structure, paying attention to meritocracy in appointing managers, and addressing concerns about discrimination” were among the demands of the Pasargad Steel workers.
During the gathering, they held placards reading, among other slogans: “The knife has reached the bone,” “How long injustice and the pain of bread,” and “Workers are awake – they hate exploitation.”
ILNA wrote that Behnam Nahid, the governor of Kavar, told media outlets: “The workers of this factory do not have overdue wages, and their demands relate to some benefits that were paid to them in addition to their salaries.”
He attributed the delay in paying benefits and bonuses to the factory’s “electricity imbalance.”
In recent years, labor protests in various regions of Iran have shown an upward trend. In their strikes and gatherings, workers have protested low wages, non-payment of wages and insurance, privatization, layoffs, and temporary employment contracts.
Nurses’ gathering in Sanandaj
A number of nurses also gathered on Saturday, December 13, in front of the human resources building of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences in Sanandaj.
At the gathering, nurses said that life cannot be lived on promises.
According to the report, they emphasized that the only remaining path forward is protest.
In recent years, nurses at state hospitals have repeatedly gone on strike and held gatherings in various Iranian cities to protest living conditions and harsh working conditions.
Among the demands raised in these protests are “transparency in tariffs and the method of allocating performance pay, fairness in tariff payments between physicians and other medical staff, timely payment of arrears and financial claims, hiring new staff, and reducing the workload of healthcare personnel.”
Gathering of municipal service workers in Kermanshah
In Kermanshah as well, a number of municipal service workers gathered in front of the governorate building on Saturday, December 13.
According to ILNA, these workers protested the lack of employment contracts and the non-payment of three to four months of overdue wages.
They said that despite “repeated visits” to municipal officials, they have received no response, and it is unclear when their demands will be paid.
The workers noted that due to unpaid wages, they cannot afford rent or daily expenses, and their tables are empty.
Support by four independent organizations for labor protests
The Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers’ Syndicate, the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers’ Organizations, Khuzestan Retired Workers, and the Union of Retirees group on Saturday issued a joint statement supporting the December 9 strike and gathering of five thousand workers in the South Pars region and the December 10 gathering of one thousand third-party contract workers in front of the regime’s parliament.
Referring to the conditions of workers in South Pars, these independent labor organizations wrote: “Asaluyeh is a camp with absolute exploitation, unbearable pollution, and numerous workplace accidents, where the capitalist system has taken control of workers’ health and even their lives at a small cost.”
They added that Asaluyeh is “a free zone where employers, at their own discretion, impose long working hours and low and unequal wages on workers.”
The four organizations emphasized that the “oppression and repression” of workers by the government, the ruling establishment, and employers has never been able to impose “submission and obedience” on them.
The signatory organizations described the December 9 and 10 labor protests in South Pars and Tehran as “a day demonstrating the continuation of unity and struggle” by workers who have based their “charter of struggle” on demands that unite the majority of workers around them.
The demands referenced in the statement include “reforming the job classification plan and the wage equalization system, implementing the two-on two-off rotational plan for administrative and support staff, determining the status of leased-vehicle drivers, organizing the situation of safety support forces, observing labor law and customary workplace conditions, paying camp allowances, and providing air transportation for contract workers.”
