Reported by PMOI / MEK
Iran, Dec. 10, 2018 – On Monday, the workers of Iran National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, held their 31st consecutive day of demonstrations and strikes in front of the Khuzestan governor’s office. The workers are demanding the payment of months-overdue wages and other basic rights.
The INSIG is one of the major manufacturers and exporters of steel in Iran and employs thousands of workers. The workers hold regime officials responsible for their deteriorating work conditions. On Monday, gathered in front of the governor’s office, the demonstrators were chanting, “The governor and mayor are inept and indifferent,” protesting to the regime’s lack of response to their just demands.
On Sunday, a group of Ahvaz steelworkers disrupted a meeting by local authorities and parliament members that were assembled to discuss the water and sewage problems of Ahvaz.
One of the workers was shouting, “Why don’t you say anything about the mafia that has destroyed our lives?” In their protests, the workers of Ahvaz have compared regime authorities and the management of the steel factory to criminal gangs that have been profiteering at the expense of the workers.
On Sunday, the workers held the 30th day of their demonstrations and strikes in front of government buildings. While marching in the streets of Ahvaz, the workers were calling on other Ahvazi citizens to join them in their protests.
The workers were chanting, “Imprisoned workers must be freed,” “Neither threats nor prison will be of no use” and “Workers will die but will not give in to disgrace.” In the past days, the Iranian regime has tried to intimidate the workers and force them to end their protests by arresting several of their members and threatening to take legal action.
But the workers continue to take to the streets day after day and are directly targeting regime authorities. “Every worker says: down with tyrants,” the workers were chanting in their protests.
The workers were also chanting slogans against Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian regime’s president, calling him a liar. Rouhani made many promises on his campaign trail for the presidency to improve the country’s economic conditions, none of which have materialized. The workers were chanting, “Our country is full of thieves, and is unique in the world.”
The workers held banners that read, “Don’t make the workers victims of the mafia of dirty deals. Isn’t the silence of [Iranian] authorities a sign of their complicity?”
In this regard, the National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement, in which it said, “This brave strike and demonstration takes place while the regime's leaders, by threats and incentives and giving deceptive promises, seek to push the workers to break their strike. However, the workers stressed that they would continue their protests until they achieve all their goals, including returning the company to the main body of the government, establishing all production lines, supplying the necessary equipment and parts, solving the workers' insurance problem, and paying regular and timely salaries of the workers.”
