Not Permitted Even to Gather Peacefully

On the eve of May 1, the international workers’ day, seven labor organizations issued a joint statement announcing that Iranian workers will celebrate the day and gather peacefully like prior years to protest their “inhumane” conditions and demand their rights.

This statement was released despite the fact that pressures on labor activists across Iran have intensified in recent days. In some cities, like Sanandaj, a large number of labor activists were summoned to the intelligence ministry’s offices.

The joint statement released by the seven labor organizations called for the “immediate realization” of fourteen demands, including freedom to organize independent labor unions, halting the implementation of the subsidy reform law, setting new wage levels by true labor representatives, eliminating of temporary contracts, guaranteeing job security, payment of past-due wages, halting the firing and layoff of workers, and the unconditional release of all labor activists.

In their statement, which was published by several websites critical of the Iranian regime, the labor organizations warn that they would not tolerate the “daily assault” on their livelihood and pledge the stand “in unison against poverty and the imposed lack of social rights.”

Meanwhile, reports from inside Iran indicate that on Saturday, April 30, four hundred workers in the cities of Masjid Soleyman and Lali held a gathering to protest the nonpayment of back-wages.

Reports from Kurdistan indicate that workers there were prevented from gathering in the city of Sanandaj to commemorate May Day and several labor activists were summoned there.

According to a report by the Free Trade Union, more than two hundred workers in Sanandaj planned to held a rally to commemorate May Day but were blocked by police and security forces.

According to the same report, Sheis Amani, Sharif Saedpanah, and Seddigh Karimi, senior members of the Free Trade Union, as well as three members of the Coordinating Committee to Help Create Labor Unions, Ghaleb Hosseini, Khaled Hosseini, and Yadollah Ghotbi, were summoned to the intelligence ministry’s offices in Sanandaj and interrogated.

In recent days, labor protests demanding payment of back-wages have become more frequent. Since the beginning of the year, and especially after the implementation of the subsidy reform law, which has reinforced Iran’s economic crisis, many factory and office workers across the country have participated in rallies or strikes.

Every year, the Iranian government arrests a large number of labor activists on the international workers’ day. Last year, dozens of labor activists were arrested on this day.

Last week, several government officials attempted to appropriate the labor movement and turn it into a government event. In the latest move, Alireza Layegh-Haghighi, the head of the Workers Basij, announced plans to recruit one million members for the Workers Basij by the end of the Fifth Development Plan. He said that the goal of the Workers Basij was to “assist the government in Islamicizing the work environment.”