Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, August, 20, 2019—On Monday, a group of 200 contract workers from the Persian Gulf Transportation Company held a demonstration in front of the offices of the Privatization Organization in Tehran. The workers started their march early in the morning from their place of work in Eslam Shahr, 12 kilometers from Tehran, and marched on the capital.
According to the protesters, since July, the private owner who has recently acquired this company has cancelled the contracts of all contract workers and insists that if they want to continue working for the company, they must work through another contractor company.
The workers of Persian Gulf held similar demonstrations in May, demanding the payment of their overdue salaries and the settlement of their work conditions after the privatization of the company. Regime officials promised to respond to their demands, but the situation has only worsened for them.
Privatization has become a source of misery for the Iranian labor force and one of the main causes of the country’s economic decline. The Privatization Organization is selling public assets and important public companies to private owners, mostly regime officials and individuals with close ties to the government, and often at very low prices. Those private owners usually end up selling the major assets of the companies they acquire to make a profit, refuse to pay their workers, and fire many of their employees.
In the past year, many labor protests have been directed at the private owners of companies and regime officials who cooperate with them.
Earlier this month, in what can be described as another chapter of the unending rivalry and infighting between different ruling factions of the Iranian regime, Abdollah Pour Hosseini, the president of the Privatization Organization, who was also the deputy Economy Minister, was arrested on fraud and embezzlement charges.
