The mullahs’ regime in Iran received a major wake-up call on Saturday as at least 82 sites of the country’s oil and petrochemical industry saw workers walk off and go on strike. Workers are protesting not receiving any raises in their salaries and having paychecks delayed, parallel to being treated inhumanely at their jobsites with poor food and low-quality resting/housing facilities.
These strikes, continuing on Sunday as the country marks the 220th day of the nationwide uprising, portray how truly vulnerable the mullahs’ regime is as so many workers in some of the country’s most sensitive sites coordinate their strike. This also serves as a reminder about Iran’s nosediving economy under the mullahs’ rule that even these important workers, that are critical to the country’s revenue, are not receiving the salaries they deserve.
People throughout Iran continue to specifically hold the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.
Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 675 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
April 23 – Kangan, southwest #Iran
Workers of the Mobin Sanat Company are on strike protesting their officials' refusal to increase their salaries.#IranProtests #اعتصابات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/e2a5htEvgB— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 23, 2023
Reports from different parts of Iran indicate that workers of various industrial sites across the country are continuing their strike on Sunday. These industrial sites include oil, petrochemical, steel, and copper plants and mines where workers are complaining about being denied their paychecks and their basic rights. These protests are reported today from the following sites, among many others:
- Workers of the Mobin Sanat Company in Kangan, southwest Iran
- Workers of a local copper site in Sarcheshmeh, south-central Iran
- Workers of a petrochemical site in Kangan, a copper plant in Kerman, and the Der Alo Copper Mine also in Kerman
- Workers of the Farasan Company working at a copper plant in Kerman, south-central Iran
- Workers of a local steel plant in Behabad, central Iran
- Workers of the Ghadir steel plant in Neyriz, south-central Iran
- Welders of the Attaie Contracting Company and workers of the Azmoon Felez Company
- Workers of a local petrochemical site in Kerman, south-central Iran
- Employees of the Sekaf Company working at the Abadan oil refinery in southwest Iran
- Workers of a contract company at Chabahar, southeast Iran
- Workers of the local petrochemical industry in Gachsaran, southwest Iran
- Workers of the IGC Company in the Dashte Abbas area of Dehloran, western Iran
- Workers of the Fapco Company in Lamerd, south-central Iran
- Welders and pipe workers in the refinery of Isfahan, central Iran
April 23 – #Iran
Workers of various companies are on strike protesting their officials' refusal to increase their salaries.
Kangan – petrochemical site
Kerman – copper site
Kerman – Der Alo Copper Mine#IranProtests #اعتصابات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/e9ScarFKYS— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 23, 2023
Workers of at least 44 different oil and petrochemical sites throughout Iran were on strike, some for a second day, on Saturday protesting the officials’ refusal to increase their salaries, demanding their delayed paychecks, and protesting low quality food and resting/housing facilities at their job sites. These protests were reported on Saturday from the following sites, among many others:
- A petrochemical industry site in Gachsaran, southwest Iran
- Workers of the Apadana petrochemical site in Asaluyeh, southern Iran
- Workers of the Exir Sanat Company, involved in various projects at a local oil refinery in Abadan, southwest Iran
- Workers of the Pars Kayhan Company, involved in various oil and gas projects in Isfahan, central Iran
- Workers of a local petrochemical site in Dehloran, western Iran
- Workers of the Persian Gulf Sadaf Petrochemical Company in Asaluyeh, southern Iran
- Workers of the Panah Industrial Company in Lordegan, southwest Iran
- Workers of the Ista Sanat Company in southern Iran
- Workers of the Kian Sazeh Benvar Company at a petrochemical complex in Isfahan, central Iran
- Workers of the Sadaf Jahan Pars petrochemical complex in southern Iran
- Workers of the IGC Company in Dehloran, western
- Workers of the Azar Metal Company at the Hengam petrochemical complex in Shiraz, south-central Iran
April 22 – Southern #Iran
Workers of the Ista Sanat Company at the local oil and gas industry are on strike protesting their officials' refusal to increase their paychecks.#IranProtests #اعتصابات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/CoqC8vJSNQ— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 22, 2023
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi hailed the brave workers of Iran’s oil, gas, and petrochemical industry from across the country that are standing up for their rights and delivering a severe blow to the mullahs’ regime.
“Oil and petrochemical workers across cities such as Gachsaran, Asaluyeh, Dehloran, Shiraz, Bushehr, Lordegan, Sirjan, Jask, Kangan, Kerman, and others have initiated a strike. I extend my support to them. Workers and laborers in our country are being deprived of their basic rights and are living in deplorable conditions, while the leaders of the regime, the IRGC commanders, and their corrupt offspring are looting the Iranian people’s resources. They are spending the country’s wealth on anti-patriotic nuclear and missile programs and warmongering to maintain their regime. The only viable solution is to stand up and overthrow the regime to attain freedom, justice, and popular sovereignty,” the NCRI President-elect explained.
Oil and petrochemical workers across cities such as Gachsaran, Asaluyeh, Dehloran, Shiraz, Bushehr, Lordegan, Sirjan, Jask, Kangan, Kerman, and others have initiated a strike. I extend my support to them. Workers and laborers in our country are being deprived of their basic…
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 22, 2023
Fans at a derby game in Tehran on Sunday began chanting anti-regime slogans against the mullahs’ IRGC. Security forces stationed at the capital’s renowned Azadi (Freedom) Stadium responded by attacking the protesting crowd. Authorities had dispatched anti-riot security units to the stadium and its surrounding area in anticipation of anti-regime protests erupting at the site where more than 100,000 people usually gather for such games.
April 23 – Tehran, #Iran
Fans at a football/soccer game began chanting anti-regime slogans against the mullahs' IRGC.
Security forces responded by attacking the protesting crowd.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/7EFrkaKQ2x— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 23, 2023
People in the Shahrak-e Bagheri district of the Iranian capital Tehran began were chanting anti-regime slogans on Sunday night local time. Their slogans included:
“Down with Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“Down with the dictator!”
“We don’t want a republic of execution!”
“We don’t want a child-killing regime!”
“This is the year Seyed Ali [Khamenei] is overthrown!”
April 23 – Tehran, #Iran
Locals in the capital's Shahrak-e Bagheri district began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
"Down with Khamenei!"#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/M0kvWVrH7e— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 23, 2023
The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.
She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.