Reported by PMOI/MEK
Iran, Dec. 3, 2018 – On Monday, the workers of the Iran National Steel Industrial Group returned to the streets of Ahvaz, Khuzestan, to protest for their most basic rights. The workers have been demanding the payment of their overdue salaries for months.
The workers were holding banners that read: “The workers are awake, they are fed up with exploitation.”
Other banners read: “Don’t make workers the victims of mafia deals.” Like many other factories in Iran, the workers of Ahvaz are suffering from the corrupt policies of the Iranian regime. While the workers have been calling for their unpaid wages for months, regime officials continue to make benefits from unchecked control and authority over Iran’s most important factories and economic institutions.
After having received no proper answer from government officials, the workers of Ahvaz have resorted to strikes and demonstrations, their last means to achieve their demands. As they have persisted in their protests, the workers have earned the respect and solidarity of their compatriots across Iran as well as the support of labor and human rights activists across the world.
The Iranian regime has tried to coerce the workers to return to work by threatening to crack down on the demonstrations and arrest the protesters. But the workers return to the streets day after day to reclaim their trampled rights.
The regime’s own officials confess that there are many factories and companies across Iran where the workers are deeply unsatisfied with their work and pay conditions, and any day, another protest can erupt in some other corner of Iran.
