CODIR calls for active solidarity with protesting Iran National Steel Group workers and trade unionists in Ahvaz

Major protest by Iran National Steel Group workers in Ahvaz

Workers of the Iran National Steel Group (INSG) in the southern city of Ahvaz staged a huge protest rally and demonstration yesterday, Monday 29 September. The participants initially gathered in front of the Khuzestan Province Governor’s Office and then marched onwards to the building of the Governorate of Ahvaz City and the provincial headquarters of Bank Melli (National Bank of Iran).

During the demonstration, the workers chanted slogans including: “A worker may perish, but will not accept humiliation!” and “Hossein, Hossein [the martyred Shia Imam] is their [the government] chant, but lies and theft is their business!”

According to credible independent trade union contacts inside Iran, Monday’s action came on the back of over two weeks of protest gatherings by steelworkers on the premises of the INSG in Ahvaz and the refusal of management and provincial officials to heed or pay any attention to their grievances and legitimate demands.

INSG workers in Ahvaz are demanding:

– Immediate payment of overdue wage arrears for the months of August and September

– Reactivation of shut-down production lines

– Adequate and proper supplementary insurance

– Timely payment of their insurance premiums by the employer

The day before, on Sunday 28 September, the steelworkers issued a call for their comrades to gather, protest, and rally on Monday, thereby making clear their grievances and issuing an “ultimatum” to both officials and the National Bank of Iran.

The workers’ call-to-action, initially addressing INSG management, read as follows:

“Enough is enough! The workers of the Iran National Steel Group (INSG) in Ahvaz have clearly and explicitly made their final statement. Had there been any respect, we would have shown it; had patience been needed, we have [already] endured beyond our limits; but what never materialised was anything from your empty and deceptive promises. For years, you have played with the lives of the workers with lies and timewasting – and today, this flame of anger cannot be extinguished.”

The INSG workers’ statement went on to address the National Bank of Iran, accusing it of “taking the livelihoods of 12,000 families hostage” and stating:

“It was you who, with your dirty policies, brought the worker to ruin. Know that this time, the game is over. If the worker remained silent until today, it was not out of inability, but out of nobility. Now it is our turn to answer you at your own level…”

They added that this would be their “last warning” [before commencing a campaign of concerted and prolonged industrial action and disruption]: “After this, the responsibility for whatever ensues will be on you. The workers will neither retreat nor be fooled by false promises. This time, either our rights are granted, or you must await the heavy consequences of your own negligence and stubbornness.”

Workers’ exasperation over repeatedly unfulfilled promises

The current unrest at INSG Ahvaz follows on from a previous meeting between the steelworkers’ representatives and those of the Governorate of Khuzestan Province and the Governorate of Ahvaz City, during which the latter two parties assured the INSG workers that their wage arrears covering the Iranian months of Mordad and Shahrivar (roughly approximate to August and September in the Western calendar) would be paid promptly and in full on Sunday 28 September. However, the date came and went without the honouring of this promise leaving the workers, their families, and dependents out of pocket and in an increasingly precarious financial situation.

On Sunday, one of the INSG workers told the government-backed Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) that: “Despite the fact that provincial authorities had promised to pay the arrears today, there has been no news of any payment having been made so far. The workers of this company are exasperated and fed-up at constantly hearing these empty promises.”

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