Workers News

According to ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency) five days after the start of a blockade of management by workers in China Factory (Yazd), officers of the Ministry of Information, tried to arrest the factory managers. Two Ministry agents approached the workers and demanded that the factory management should be handed to them. The workers refused. According to this report, the workers strike started last Saturday (30^th October) because the workers had not been paid for 8 months and they took the current director, the previous director and the management group hostage. One of the workers said we are not hostage takers but on Saturday following a meeting between the work force and management, we decided to stay in the factory until we find a solution.

Another workers said , this factory has faced closure a number of times, last time was last year when it restarted with the workers effort but only 8 months later, (that is 5 months ago) it was closed down again because of the incompetence of the management.

-According to opposition Kurdish groups textile workers in Sanandaj have started a hunger strike and a sit in defence of their demands. The hunger strike ended last Tuesday but the workers continue the struggle in defence of their demands. The sit in started a few days later and covered the entire factory, with hundreds of workers in the sit in. In addition throughout the city of Sanandaj a large number of people signed a petition in support of the striking workers. Five workers who were transferred to hospital during the hunger strike, returned to the sit in with a number of the families of the striking workers. The hunger strike ended on Tuesday but the workers set up a fund to support their sit in. In addition according to the news agency ILNA the management accepted a number of points in discussion with workers but then refused to implement these decisions and this caused further protests by the workers. According to this report all of these problems go back to the issue of ‘privatisation’. It appears that those in charge of the textile industry in Kurdistan (like in Shahou textile) are determined to transfer factories to the private sector and their determination to reduce the workforce is part of this plan.

According to ILNA a number of workers from Kashan staged a protest on Tuesday the 2^nd of Nov; this was one of many such protests in recent months. The workers were protesting about the exclusion of unemployment insurance for the duration of hard and damaging labour. These workers most of whom are employed in the textile and velvet/silk manufacturing companies of Kashan, gathered outside the offices of the

Social Security in this town, demanding a response from the authorities. According to one of the workers, the legislation regarding early retirement and the law regarding 25 years of labour in difficult jobs, has a time limit and that time is almost finishing and if our cases are not dealt with, we will loose our rights. Some textile workers in other cities have been included as beneficiaries of this legislation; however textile workers in Kashan were told they could not benefit from this legislation. The director of Social Security in Kashan claimed that the workers requests were beyond his jurisdiction.

Strike and Sit-in in kesht-o-sanaat Karoun (an agricultural industrial plant). The strike started by workers in the ‘cane cutting’ section. As the authorities ignored the workers

demands, last Saturday (20^th October) around 2000 workers staged a protest demonstration from the cane cutting Section of ‘kesht-o-sanaat’ Karoun towards the city of Shoshtar, 18 Km away form the factory. During the protest the workers were brandishing the sickles they use for cutting cane and shouting slogans against the factory management and the authorities in the city of Shoushtar. 8kilometers into their march the workers reached a village called ‘Aab Garmak’ where the security service and Islamic guards attacked the protests. Despite their resistance, the workers were forced to return to their camp. When they returned to their camp, the workers refused to go back to work and staged a sit-in which lasted until Tuesday the 2nd of November. According to latest reports the authorities have promised

to accept their demands. The workers announced that they will give the management ten days after which they will restart their sit-in and take up more militant action. The workers are asking for 2months a manual holiday, special concession for hard labour, improvement of the living conditions of the camp such as provision of running water, electricity and health service. They are also demanding insurance, most of the workers

in this section have no health insurance.

Workers in Bahman plastic demand payment of 5months unpaid wages. In a recent protest they stopped the management taking the production machinery ‘Unido’ ( which was a gift )out of the factory. The owners of the ‘Bahman plastic’ factory are trying to sell equipment which was the gift of world environmental organisation ‘Unido’ to this factory. A the production line of this factory is particularly damaging to the ozone layer this international organisation had donated a more environmental friendly equipment to this factory to replace the old one. However the management and new owners of this factory were trying to take this equipment out of the factory and sell it .

The general secretary of ‘nurses house’ (Khaneh parastar) announced that neglecting the nurses demands will cause disillusionment and more widespread protests will follow.

Iranian nurses have staged protests throughout September and October against low wages and poor working conditions. She added that if legal methods fail to deliver results, nurses will have to resort to illegal methods to highlight their demands.

Coal Mines created another incident, one of the coal miners in ‘hajtak’ near Kerman , died because of an accident in a tunnel. According to one of the workers in this mine, his fellow workers died from asphyxiation in the mud in this underground tunnel. Mohammad Tiz Housh who was 32, had a wife and 2 children and lack of proper equipment lead to his death.

A 28 year old worker, Javad Yahayvi, from ‘machine sazi’ (car manufacturer) Tabriz died at work. Javad who was working in one of the contract companies of the car plant in the ‘moulding’ section, died instantly following an accident on the conveyor belt of the moulding equipment.

In the 1^st week of November workers in the china factory ‘Hiss Abhar’ staged a protest in front of the governor office These workers were demanding the right to return to their work . The governor made promises to deal with their demand and the protestors dispersed.

According to news website PeykIran, the personnel in Iran’s industrial marine factory have been involved in a number of strikes demanding better pay and conditions and against the sacking of large numbers of their fellow workers for no reason. They also protested against 100 percent pay rises for the managers and directors of this factory.

Some of these directors now earn up to 7million tomans a month. On Wednesday the 3^rd of Nov all the factories of this industry in Neka and Boushehr closed down as the workers went on strike. These workers complained about the difficult working conditions and the fact that not only managers pay is so high but their bonuses reach 100million toman while workers live in absolute poverty and gain low wages. At one strike meeting the workers decide to continue their strike and announced that if the management continues to ignore their demands they will stage other forms of protest.