Iranian workers


  • Iran: Minimum Wage and State Manipulated Food Baskets

    The state in favor employers manipulate the basket food to suppress wages. The Ministry of Health has reduced nutritional needs in the food basket, sparking worker protests. Amid inflation and unemployment threats, the true cost of living is ignored, leaving workers underpaid and increasing hunger, while employers oppose wage hikes citing economic strain. The Supreme Labor Council prepares to set a minimum wage far below the actual cost of living amid inflation, benefiting employers at the expense of workers’ quality of life.

  • Iran: The Colonial Legacy of Women’s Exploitation

    Iran’s Deputy Minister of Industry announced the closure of 6,900 industrial units, exacerbating unemployment and poverty, with women hit hardest. Official data shows women’s employment decreasing, with informal jobs, accounting for 70% of employment, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and without legal or social protections. The patriarchal and misogynistic culture systematically oppresses women, marginalizing them from decision-making and pushing them into unpaid domestic labor. Gender inequality is institutionalized in laws and governance, leading Iran to rank 143 in the 2023 global gender gap report.

  • Iran: Ahvaz Steel Workers Against Privatization

    Recently, steel workers in Ahvaz, Iran, intensified their protests over fair compensation, job classification, and job security, clashing with National Steel Factory management. The conflict arose after a corrupt privatization scheme, inequitable salary practices, and management’s refusal to uphold agreements. Workers have initiated strikes following failed negotiations and are challenging the management’s deceptive tactics and the government’s privatization efforts. They demand the reinstatement of a labor leader, salary adjustments in line with industry standards, and the cessation of retaliatory actions by employers.

  • Standing Tall: Iranian Labor Movement and Solidarity

    Maziar Seyednejad, a jailed labor activist, reflects on the challenges faced by the National Steel Group and Haft Tappeh Sugarcane workers’ protests. Despite significant societal turmoil, he questions the lack of a strong connection between various protest movements. Maziar, serving a two-year sentence, highlights the need to assess the positive and negative aspects of past protests, attributing the existing disconnect to unstable organizational structures. As labor and retiree protests intensify, he sees the potential for more cohesive and powerful worker organizations to emerge based on past experiences.

  • Iran’s new Labor Legislation: not Exploitation but Slavery

    Alarming reports have emerged, revealing troubling provisions within Article 15 of the bill, whereby employers are granted the authority to remunerate newly employed individuals with wages amounting to a mere fifty percent of the minimum wage sanctioned by the Supreme Labor Council during the initial three years of employment.

  • Strike Under Repression: Iranian Oil Industry Project Workers’ Challenges

    Project workers in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry face a unique set of challenges when it comes to organizing and mobilizing for better working conditions. These temporary contract workers, often lack the stability and support of permanent employees, making them vulnerable to financial and political pressure. Workers experience different forms of organization that are often innovative and may even have the chance to be tried once. However, project workers have developed innovative ways to withstand these challenges.

  • The Workers’ Revolt: Labor’s Role in Iran’s Nationwide Uprisings

    Why, after more than two months of protests, have nationwide strikes not yet occurred in Iran, and how do the demands of the current uprising for “women, life, freedom” align with those of the working class? To address these questions, we spoke with Parvin Mohammadi, the vice-chairman of the Independent Iranian Workers’ Union. With years of experience in the labor movement and a history of interrogations, arrests, and trials due to her activism, Mohammadi believes that “national labor strikes will happen, but on a different schedule, when this movement becomes wider and involves crowds of thousands in cities.”

  • Arrests, threats, and police violence inflicted on Iranian teachers on 1 May

    Teachers’ and workers’ organizations in Iran planned large demonstrations for May. The security police crushed the demonstrations with all their might. On the night of May 1, many teachers were under house arrest in their homes, and dozens were arrested.