Unpaid workers in southern Iran city launch protest

Iran Focus: Ahwaz, Iran, Sep. 28 – Dozens of unpaid workers held a protest outside the governorate of oil-rich Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, demanding the government put pressure on their employers to pay their overdue wages. Iran Focus

Ahwaz, Iran, Sep. 28 – Dozens of unpaid workers held a protest outside the governorate of oil-rich Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, demanding the government put pressure on their employers to pay their overdue wages.

Some 50 workers from the Jangineh Brick Baking Factory took part in the rally outside the governorate in Ahwaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan.

The protestors claimed that they had not received their wages for the past 12 months.

“We are forced to work but are not being paid. If we quit now then we will have no hope of getting our back-wages for the past year. What choice do we have?” said one disgruntled worker. “We have not even been given our annual bonuses for the past two years”, he complained.

Another worker who was visibly distraught said that he had been forced to get a night job to be able to support his wife and children.

“Is this justice? We have rights too”, he chanted before breaking down in tears. “I don’t even have enough money to replace my son’s torn shoes”.

Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had run in the presidential campaign on a platform of purging corruption, mismanagement, and poverty in society but Iran experts say that workers in the country have since become in a greater state of financial flux.

Security is tight in Ahwaz which has been the scene of unremitting anti-government protests since early 2005.