Protests Against Firing of Workers and Closure of Workshops

Despite the claims by the Majlis representative from Mahshahr that the workers strikes at the town’s petrochemical complex had ended, news reports indicate that the strikes continue. The executive secretary of the province’s Khane Kargar, a workers organization, confirmed the bleak situation when he recently said, “Statistics on the number of laid off workers in recent years are greater than new hires and we have been witness to the dismissal of worker and the closure of workshops in this province.” But Khalil Hayat, the lawmaker from the province claimed that an agreement had been reached with the workers who had ended the strike and returned to work. The Financial Times newspaper also wrote that strikes and go-slow actions by workers continued in the workers in the province.

For months anti Iranian government media have been reporting on and off strikes by the workers of the Bandar Imam petrochemical plant near the town of Mahshahr in Khuzestan province. But local media in Iran have not directly covered the strikes. The latest round of strikes at the Mahshahr petrochemical plant began on September 24 and continues till today.

According to a website belonging to the Etehadie Azad Kargaran Iran (The Free Association of Iranian Workers) in addition to the workers at Mahshahr’s plant, workers in other petrochemical units such as those at Arvand, Amir Kabir and Tondgooyan went on strike in the early hours of September 25 this year.

Protests Over Unfulfilled Promises

According to the representatives of the striking workers, the reasons for the industrial action by the workers are discriminations in benefits, late payment of wages and the issue of insurance. These issues related mostly to workers of contractors who work for the petrochemical plants.

The striking workers are presenting two key demands: elimination of the contractors and direct contracts with the workers. In fact, they say, this is what had been agreed upon and officially decreed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration in 2005.

But even with the passage of six years, the contractors continue to exist. Economists attribute this situation to the widespread unemployment across the country. When there are no jobs available, workers are forced to sign imposed contracts with contractors.

In recent days the only person who has spoken of the strike at the petrochemical plant is Khalil Hayat Moghadam, the Majlis representative, who also revealed that a number of workers had actually been arrested. “It is now months that the pays of workers at the Mahshahr petrochemical plant have not been paid and the minister of oil has promised to redress the issue and make the payments, while also addressing the unemployment issue and workers benefits. But not only have the wages of the workers not been paid, but there are attempts to create a police atmosphere by the plants guards to break the strikes,” he said.

Prior to this, the governor of Mahshahr had denied the existence of any strikes at the plant and said that there was only a workers “sit-in” and had stressed that “the production process continued and there are no strikes going on.”

News reports indicate that local authorities have till now decided to remain silent on the issue while on the other hand intelligence agents threaten and arrest labor activists. The Revolutionary Guards intelligence division of Mahshahr has so far arrested three individuals by the names of Mansour Abbasi, Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri, and Jasem Badrdani who were detained but subsequently released. All three were not returned their work badges, thus banning them from entering the petrochemical plant. Workers have said that unlike the earlier days of the strikes when security forces did not take any action, during the last three or four days they appear at the workers strikes and gatherings and watch them through a display of force.

In their second round of strikes, the Mahshahr workers have created a strike committee and declared, “We have come to the conclusion that we shall get anywhere without coordination and an organization. Even if our strikes succeed and we make gains, these accomplishments will not last if there is no organization to pursue them.”

The first round of protests came to Mahshahr’s petrochemical plant last December. The actual strike began on April 9 this year and continued for 11 days. Eventually, workers succeeded in getting the approval to some of their demands from the management. Prior to that 1500 workers at the Tabriz petrochemical plant had gone on strike which continued for 10 days. This was the first extensive workers strike at the petrochemical plants in Iran.

In one of its statements, the strike committee had called on the national and international labor groups to support it. This latest strike at Mahshahr comes after six months of talks, debates, deals and counter deals between the workers and management.

It should be noted that in the privatization process in Iran, petrochemical plants were the first to go public. The government’s purported reason for releasing these plants in the industry was to increase productivity and efficiency of the management. But research and reports by the Majlis indicate that in fact the measures were pseudo privatization acts as the shares of these companies went to the retirement funds and there has been no change in the culture inside the plants and their management.

Economic stagnation in Iran has resulted in the drop of the value of half finished industrial products to 100 billion Toman (approximately hundred million Dollars). One worker activist recently told Iran’s ILNA labor news agency that more than 50 percent of the country’s industry was facing economic stagnation. Abbas Vatanparast also told the news agency that 85 billion Toman in investment had remained unused, and added, “During the fourth economic development plan 65 percent of the active population of the country played no role in contributing to the GNP.”

While criticizing the official published figures and statistics on the rate of new employments he said, “Today, whole climate of labor and work is shut. Despite the allocation of 20 billion Toman to the ministry of labor and social welfare, the rate of employment remains negative.”

The recent labor strikes around the country have so far resulted in the arrest of more than 10 labor activists. Three international labor organizations have complained to the ILO office in Geneva over Iran’s labor policies and practices regarding the labor organizations and labor activities.