Widespread workers' protest in Iran

Iran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzzi.

According to reports from the regime-run news agency, ILNA, on Saturday, December 31st, 200 workers from Miral Glass Factory, located in Yoftabad, a residential district of the Iranian capital, gathered to protest months of non-receipt of their wages. The workers blocked the road leading to the production facilities and set tires on fire. They complained that month after month the management had been approached and workers had pressed for some kind of resolution to their problems, to no avail. READ MORE

One of the workers said that the Basij cooperative fund, the national investment group and a merchant who owns a furniture factory are the partners who own Miral and have plans to defraud approximately the employed workers of many months of back pay that they are lawfully owed. Another workers also indicated that other than the employed workers, another 200 retired workers have also not received their pensions in many months. A third workers stated: "We have gathered in protest several other times and each time the management made promises to investigate and resolve our issues however nothing has been done and we are continually neglected; the checks they gave us too, bounced and we’re simply at the end of our ropes; we don’t know what more to do. Our families are starving and I for one am embarrassed to face them."

A forth worker said: "Instead of helping other countries, the regime should pay attention to its work force." The workers said that the regimes television has made reports and shot footage of their previous protests but never aired a single minute of what they claimed they produced. They also mentioned that they had complained to the public prosecutors office of Yoftabad and the Ministry of Labor; they too had not provided any proper solutions other than saying: "Today, tomorrow".

Protests in front of the Tehran Labor Department

Workers from the KAVEH SAFES gathered to protest 6 months non-payment of their wages in front of the Tehran labor department. Jafar Beeglou, the director of the Islamic assembly of Kaveh Safes said: "The workers who have run out of patience with the empty promises of Tehran’s governors office have taken to protest. These workers who have not been paid for 6 months and whose living conditions are becoming more and more difficult by the day, have made many attempts to have their problems resolved but no one can be bothered to help them. They will continue to protest until their back pay has been settled."