Iran: 1,000 copper workers go on hunger strike

Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 19 – Some 1,000 copper workers in the south-eastern Iranian city of Kerman staged a hunger
strike in protest against the authorities’ refusal to improve working conditions.
Iran Focus

Tehran, Jun. 19 – Some 1,000 copper workers in the south-eastern Iranian city of Kerman staged a hunger strike in protest against the authorities’ refusal to improve working conditions.

Workers at Kerman’s Shahid Bahonar Copper Plant said that despite repeated calls over the past three years, provincial and national authorities have refused to take any action against extensive mismanagement at the factory.

“We have worked hard under unbearable working conditions over the past year and production has increased compared with previous years. But the factory’s management has reduced workers’ overtime wages and instead increased bonuses for the management”, the workers said in a statement.

“The only way we can make ends meet for our families is by working overtime, but we rarely receive our wages”, one striking worker said.

Workers complained that the management sought to fire employees who complained about their situation.