2021-06-30

The wave of strikes by temporary and contract workers in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors in Iran continues to spread. First, on June 19, official oil workers went on strike at the Khark oil terminal. Then, on June 20, contract workers at the Bidkhoon power plant, deprived of a formal and permanent work contract and under the heat of 50 degrees Celsius, went on strike and the strike spread, becoming more widespread day by day.

Increase of wages and paying them on time, workplace safety, organisation of working time on the basis of 20 days of work and 10 days of rest, repealing the free trade zone slavery laws and dismantling contract companies – these human labor brokers – are among the demands of the striking workers. Unpaid wages, despite the end of the contract period and the deduction of insurance premiums from workers’ wages and failure to send the list of insurances to the social security organization, has become a normal routine of contract companies.

So far, more than 70 companies have joined the strike, dubbed “Campaign 1400” in reference to the current Iranian calendar year 1400. Haft Tappeh sugarcane workers’ union, Tehran bus workers’ union, Coordinating Committee To Help Workers’ Organisations, Retirees and Cultural Workers Union, National Steel Group workers, leading students of Isfahan University, a group of sixteen organizations, workers and activists from the city of Sanandaj (Kurdistan province), and many leftist and communist parties have so far announced their solidarity and support for the strikes.

Workers of Gamma Company in Jask terminal, workers of Sazeh Pad Company in Bushehr Petrochemical Company, radiologists in Assaluyeh and Abadan, as well as many other workers in eight strategic labor and industrial provinces of Iran have joined the continuous and spreading strike, while stating their support for “Campaign 1400”.

Following its first and second statements, the organizing committee of the strikes issued its third statement, emphasizing on “workers’ unity”. The third statement referred to the conspiracy of employers, government officials and the Friday prayer leaders (Imams) and warned workers against government conspiracies. The statement of the organizing committee called for the expansion and generalization of the strike as a striking weapon against the government’s threats, and reiterated that response to these threats and “expulsion of workers” come from workers’ unity and solidarity and the expansion of the strike.

The statement adds: “In some oil areas, where we workers have remained in our workplaces and dormitories, employers have cut off water, food and access to transportation services that we could take to the city and buy food, in an attempt to force us to evacuate the dormitories (workers shelters).” Cutting off food, water and ventilation in the heat over 50 degrees Celsius and while facing the corona wave, government elements and agents, including Friday prayer leaders and other government agents, have been tasked with creating discord and deception by discouraging workers.

The statement also reveals that striking workers “have been implicitly threatened not to hold rallies and that if they did, the issue would go beyond normal labor demands and becomes political, and also not to take the protests to the streets.”

The workers’ statement warns that “This news emphasizes the preservation of our countrywide unity and solidarity, while at the same time emphasizing that we must add the demand for re-hiring the fired workers to our list of demands.” “We must stand united in the face of all these attacks, reveal employers’ conspiracies widely to the media and stand against any aggression against the workers in any part of the country.”

The organizing committee of the strikes states in its third statement that if our demands are not met by August, we will protest in a wider form. “We stand by our demands. No worker should be paid less than 12 million tomans (about $500 at current exchange rate) a month, and the amount of different wage categories should be determined according to the worker’s expertise and in coordination with the workers themselves.”, meanwhile “Wages must be paid on time, and 20 working days and 10 days off are our immediate demands.” The statement adds: “With these demands, we make sure that contractors take their hands off our lives and put an end to the special economic and barracks laws ruling our workplaces”.

In a joint statement issued on Monday (July 28^th 2021), dozens of syndicates, labor unions, federations and confederations around the world stated their support for the strike of the contract and temporary oil, gas and petrochemical workers in Iran. In the statement, these member organizations of the International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles, announced their support for both Iranian workers, as well as for the organizing committee of the strikes. This international worker solidarity comes from different countries including Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Algeria, Haiti, Senegal, Pakistan, Turkey and El Salvador.

Prior to this declaration of class and international solidarity, the General Union of Iraqi Oil and Gas Workers, the International Federation of Industrial Workers as well as labor unions in Sweden had expressed their solidarity and support for the oil workers’ strikes.

We express our solidarity with the striking workers in the oil, gas and power companies, support their just demands and call on the international labor organizations to support workers struggles in Iran.

Bureau of International Relations of the Communist Party of Iran

30 June 2021