Iran’s corrupt regime spares no group or social class in its animosity toward the people of the country. Its repressive and inhumane policies, targeting everyone from teachers and retirees to farmers and students, have left no sector unscathed by its relentless oppression. Among these, the plight of underprivileged workers, particularly those in the oil industry facing grueling labor conditions, is especially heartrending.
One of the latest examples of the anti-labor policies of Iran’s regime is the dismissal of representatives of hardworking oil industry workers. They were targeted with threats and repression simply for pursuing their and their colleagues’ legitimate and legal labor rights.
On December 26, Etemad newspaper reported, “Fifteen representatives of the oil industry’s third-party contract workers face the risk of dismissal due to their demands for colleagues’ legal and contractual rights… Over the past seven months, two of these workers have received final dismissal orders, five others await their termination verdicts, and eight are set to be summoned by the Selection Committee to determine whether they can continue their employment or face dismissal.”
It is noteworthy that these workers are “unofficial representatives of 120,000 third-party contract workers at the National Iranian Drilling Company and the oil industry.” They voice the grievances of over 100,000 informal workers employed by IRGC-affiliated contractors. These workers are crushed under the weight of economic hardship. Now, the regime seeks to make an example of these labor representatives by dismissing them, aiming to intimidate the broader labor community.
It is worth noting that the figure of 120,000 workers underscores the vast economic profits generated through the exploitation of these hardworking individuals, enriching the IRGC’s conglomerates and holdings. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a corrupt organization, has monopolized the entire oil and petrochemical industry in the country.
The same media outlet later explained that these third-party contract workers had pursued all legal avenues.
For years, they have followed up on their legal demands through numerous “correspondences and meetings with officials from the National Drilling Company and the Ministry of Petroleum.” These minimal demands include wage standardization, and access to benefits such as grocery cards and oil company cards.
They have held protests multiple times, voicing their demands.
Even for attending joint meetings with Ministry of Petroleum officials, they underwent “security, judicial, and political screening.”
They were compelled several times to comply with hollow promises from the regime’s corrupt officials, only to be deceived again and again.
Despite all this, the process of dismissing their representatives began one by one from June of this year.
The dismissal of workers, nurses, students, and others
The dismissal of third-party oil workers’ representatives is not the first instance of such actions. The same media revealed that this pattern dates to the early 2010s. Additionally, the dismissal of 150 welder workers from Tehran Refinery, simply for staging a brief protest, has been shared on social media. This illustrates that the oil and petrochemical mafia is unwilling to reduce even a fraction of its billion-dollar thefts.
The silence of dissent through dismissals is not limited to workers. A similar authoritarian approach was applied this year to hardworking nurses. The regime summoned many of them en masse for participating in legal gatherings.
On July 9, Tejarat News website quoted the Secretary-General of the Nurses’ Association, saying, “The minimum penalty for protesting nurses is a six-month suspension from work, with the maximum being dismissal or exile.”
Similarly, protesting students are not spared from expulsion or educational exclusion. Even the slightest opposition to the regime’s clerically crafted laws leads to severe and complicated consequences for students. In its September 2024 report, the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed the dismissal of nearly 200 students based on baseless accusations.
It is evident that this trend is not limited to these groups; teachers, government employees, and environmental activists have also repeatedly fallen victim to such policies. This reflects the regime’s fear of growing solidarity and resistance among different layers of society.
The Path to Securing Rights
The Iran’s regime, through its hysterical actions against various segments and strata of Iranian society, has not only intensified oppression and repression but also paved the way for escalating public anger and hatred with its unjust measures.
These repressive policies, aimed solely at silencing dissent out of fear of its spread in an explosive society, instead drive various segments of the population toward greater radicalism. Each dismissal and act of repression is not an end to protests but a catalyst for wider uprisings.
Workers, like other social groups, have realized that seeking their rights through peaceful means leads only to further repression, dismissal, and threats. They see that this regime is neither reformable nor responsive to justice and demands for rights. They are aware of their employers’ living conditions, criminals who are essentially elements tied to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, including some regime leaders, particularly IRGC commanders, who pocket tens of billions of dollars in net annual profits.
Workers, like teachers, nurses, students, and other laborers, have come to believe that their path to securing rights does not lie at the negotiating table or in petitions and regime appeals but, in protests and uprisings, and eventually the overthrow of the regime.