Press release

26th September 2024 

The Committee for the Defence of Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR) is calling upon trade unions in Britain to mobilise support for miners killed and injoured in a coal mine explosion in Iran.

The recent explosion at the privately owned Ma’adanJo mine in Tabas, in Khorasan Province East Iran, has trapped at least 69 miners in tunnels, hundreds of meters deep and, at the most recent count, resulted in 51 deaths. 

Reports from mineworkers indicate that the explosion was caused by the accumulation of methane gas.   In the first three months of this year alone there have been at least four coal mining accidents in Iran all attributed to a lack of safety standards. 

The Union of Metalworkers and Mechanics of Iran (UMMI), which continues to defend the rights of mineworkers and has campaigned on their behalf, has raised a number of questions in relation to the incident relating to health and safety issues, such as the failure to use jet fans in the mine and why the statutory gas detectors in the mine failed.

The incident is not the first time Iran’s mining industry has been struck by disaster. In 2017, a coal mine explosion killed at least 42 people. Then President Hassan Rouhani, campaigning ahead of winning re-election, visited the site in Iran’s northern Golestan province and angry miners besieged the SUV he rode in, kicking and beating the armoured vehicle in a rage.

In 2013, 11 workers were killed in two separate mining incidents. In 2009, 20 workers were killed in several incidents. Lax safety standards and inadequate emergency services in mining areas were often blamed for the fatalities.

Maziyar Gilaninejad, the spokesperson of the UMMI has criticised the lack of regular safety inspections by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Labour, in addition to the dangers of outdated equipment and health and safety regulation, for the ongoing deaths in the mining sector. Unfortunately, the government has delegated the inspection and declaration of mine standards to the mining companies themselves and refuses to send its own inspectors to the mines.

The UMMI has called upon IndustriALL to condemn the deaths in accordance with the provisions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and to compel the Iranian government to take responsibility for mine inspections, rather than leaving it to the mine owners themselves.

Reports from inside Iran suggest that since the incident, the mine owner has turned off his phone and gone into hiding. The provincial judicial authorities have not yet issued a summons for him and the Minister of Labour, while visiting the scene of the incident, denied that the mine was substandard and supported the mine owner, calling the massacre an accident. This is in spite of the fact that last year, during a visit by former President Raisi, the workers had reminded him of the mine’s problems.

While the government announced 3 days of public mourning in the province, and promised to pay compensation to the families of the killed workers, unions are sceptical that this is merely a ploy to divert public attention away from the real causes of the incident. Unions suggest that these efforts are to cover up various reports detailing scandalous ways publicly owned companies (including Tabas mine) have been privatised, the failure of government officials and inspectors to monitor safety at work, and the failure of employers in complying with labour standards by paying bribes to government officials to obtain health and safety approvals.

They further point out that Iranian workers are victims of the profit-seeking policies of private and government employers. The number of people killed in work accidents in Iran in recent years has been between 1,850 and 2,100 people per year, which is among the highest numbers of victims of work accidents in the world. The number of injured people due to work accidents is ten times more.

CODIR is supporting the call for a full investigation by the International Labour Organisation into the ongoing health and safety crisis in Iran’s mines by requesting the International Confederation of Trade Unions (ITUC) to coordinate with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as soon as possible to organise a delegation from the ILO to Iran with  the following tasks:

• Investigate the cause of the explosion in Ma’adanjo  mine in Tabas. 
• Research the reasons for the high number of work accidents and the number of victims of these accidents. 
• Investigate and research level of implementation of the International Labour Organisation Conventions  on  work safety standards in Iran, which the Islamic Republic is officially committed to. 

CODIR is calling upon the TUC in Britain and all trade union affiliates to support these demands and to lend their support to the ongoing struggle of Iranian workers for trade union rights and the enforcement of health and safety laws to protect workers.

ENDS

Further information for Editors

Contact Information for CODIR:-

Postal Address:
B.M.CODIR
London
WC1N 3XX
UK
Website: www.codir.net
E-mail: codir_info@btinternet.com

Further information on CODIR

CODIR is the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights.  It has been established since 1981 and has consistently campaigned to expose human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

CODIR has worked closely with the trade union movement in the UK, the peace movement, all major political parties and Amnesty International to press the case for an end to torture in Iran’s prisons.  Major trade unions in Britain are affiliated to CODIR and support its campaign for peace, human and democratic rights, and social justice in Iran.

CODIR has published Iran Today, its quarterly journal, since 1981, explaining the latest developments in Iran and the most effective way that the British public opinion could demonstrate its solidarity with the people of Iran.

In recent years CODIR has worked closely with Stop the War Coalition and has been vocal against any form of foreign intervention in the internal affairs of the nation.

Office

Central Executive Council