Written by an Iranian socialist.
Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical workers from more than 60 facilities in ten provinces have been on strike since June 19. Unprecedented rise in prices in recent months and intolerable working conditions has been the cause of the largest strike in the Iranian energy sector under the Islamic Republic. The core demand of the workers, as stated by the Organising Committee for the Contract Oil Workers’ Strike, is an increase in wages to 12 million tumans (about 480 dollars) per month while most of these workers are paid less one-fourth of this amount. To add insult to injury, even these tiny wages are paid irregularly and with long delays. The striking workers also suffer from job insecurity and are always subject to dismissal by private contractors and subcontractors. Since 1990s, the government started to outsource recruiting workers for temporary projects and gave a free hand to the greedy private companies, mostly owned and directed by the affiliates of the regime and military forces, to exploit the workers as much as possible.
The workers have said they have nothing to lose, and they will continue the strike even if this costs their lives. The Organising Committee in its latest communique said the employers have withhold the workers’ last month wages and threatened to sack the strikers if they don’t end the strike. Dividing contract workers and permanent workers is another weapon used by the regime and employers to defeat the strike. The permanent workers who were to join the protest on June 30 postponed this and wait for the result of negotiations with the government.
The president-elect Ebrahim Raisi – who is well known for his involvement in the mass massacre of political prisoners in 1988 – is pretending to be a defender of the poor against the outgoing Hassan Rouhani whose hope to revive the ailing economy by normalising relations with the West was shattered after the US pull out from the nuclear deal and refreshed crushing sanctions, especially on the oil sector and banking system. However, the workers, who now understand the power of their solidarity and united action, have said they don’t believe in negotiations between the government and fake representatives of workers. They say they don’t need regime-linked bodies such as “Islamic labour councils” and underlined their right to form independent genuine labour organisations.
We express solidarity with the Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical workers and side with them in their struggle for:
- Higher wages and better working and living conditions
- Founding their trade unions free from the pressure by security forces
- Job security and the cancellation of temporary work contracts
- Elimination of private contractors and subcontractors
We condemn
- The dismissal of workers and putting a siege on them in their workplaces
- Any use of the police and security forces against the strikers
- The regime’s affiliates attempts to hijack and dilute the workers’ struggles and demands
