Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, November 6, 2020—While the Covid-19 outbreak continues its unbridled rampage across Iran, nurses are faced not only with health issues and stressful work, but they are also struggling to meet their most basic needs. And the government is not taking any measures to alleviate the pressure.
On Tuesday, a group of nurses in Bushehr province held a rally, protesting their delayed salaries and unpaid job bonuses.
The protesting nurses said that during the Covid-19 outbreak, their bonuses were decreased instead of increased. At the same time, many nurses have not yet received any Covid-related bonus that has become the norm in other countries.
It is worth noting that the private sector nurses in this province also have months’ worth of unpaid wages. Some have not received their salaries since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak in late February.
Protest rally by workers of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Factory, Shush, Khuzestan province — November 2020
On Thursday, November 5, after the State Security Forces (SSF) prevented 15 workers from entering the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company, the workers of the industrial complex left their workplaces in support of their colleagues and marched to the entrance of the facility, forcing authorities to readmit the 15 workers back into the company.
They were chanting “Workers will die but will not give in to disgrace” and “Death to the oppressor, hail to the worker”
Protest rally by workers of Kariz Highway Company, Rudbar, Gilan province — November 2020
On Thursday, November 5, workers of Kariz Highway Company in the city of Rudbar, northern Iran, went on strike protesting their four-month-delayed paychecks.
Iran's porters are among the most impoverished and oppressed segments of the Iranian society (file photo)
While the regime refrains from taking any measures to help the impoverished segments of the Iranian society, its security forces are regularly engaging in suppressive activities that deprive hard-working communities from earning what little they can.
On Thursday, Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) forces gunned down and killed a porter near Chaldoran, West Azerbaijan province. Hassan Dalai, the porter, was married and had three children. He was killed as the IRGC forces targeted a group of porters with whom he was traveling. Security forces seized and transferred Dalai’s body to Chaldoran, and they have refrained from delivering the body to his family.
On Wednesday, IRGC forces opened fire and injured another porter near Nowsud, Kermanshah province.
Porters are among the most impoverished and oppressed communities in Iran. Porters transport goods across the border for wealthy merchants and owners of large capitals throughout the year in exchange for a very meager salary, barely enough to make ends meet and put food on the table of their families. They have been forced into this physically demanding and exhausting job out of desperation and must walk hours every day in treacherous land and with heavy loads on their back. IRGC forces often target and kill porters at the borders. The regime denies them their most basic rights.
