Source:
RFE/RL
A series of labor protests have taken place in
several Iranian cities this week, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Protests and
strikes have been held in recent months over unpaid salaries and other
work-related demands, but the past few weeks have seen an exceptional amount of
such actions.
|
During a
visit by Ahmadinejad to the provincial town of Shiraz, many
workers were carrying signs and banners demanding unpaid wages and
better working conditions. |
About 1,300 workers at a pipe factory in Saveh,
about 100 kilometers southwest of Tehran, held a work stoppage for several hours
earlier this week after not receiving their paychecks for more than a month.
Some 400 workers at a factory in the western city of Arak held a demonstration
this week because many people said they had not been paid in six months.
An estimated 700 workers at the Alborz Tire factory in Eslamshahr, outside of
Tehran, also held protests last week over salary delays.
On February 3, 150 municipal workers in the far western city of Andimeshk
protested 13 months of salary delays. One protester told RFE/RL: "The police
arrested two of the workers but they were released the next day. Four other
workers were summoned by authorities and eight others were fired."
Sadeq Karegar, an Iranian union activist living in Norway, told RFE/RL that
unpaid wages are not the only issue driving workers' unrest. Living conditions
are worsening, too, he said.
"It's a matter of hunger," Karegar said. "[The workers] either must resign
themselves to death, poverty, and hardship or they must resist [and protest].
And it's obvious that when faced with a choice between life and death, one will
choose life."
Copyright (c) 2010 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
... Payvand News - 02/06/10 ... --
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