After nine days on strike in the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province, 3,000 workers at the National Steel Industry Group of Iran returned to work Dec. 31. Workers blocked entrances to the plant after the company suspended 21 workers who had been leading the fight for better wages and conditions. On the strike’s second day bosses suspended 17 more workers. Two-thirds of the workers are employed through subcontractors.
“Workers don’t accept humiliation” and “Threats of prison no longer work” were among the slogans strikers chanted at large marches — one of which is pictured above — and rallies.
Along with the return of the 38 suspended workers, strikers demanded the owners raise wages to be in line with other steel plants, establish job classifications, directly hire the contract workers and dismiss corrupt managers.
Strikers won solidarity from the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers Union in nearby Shush, Khuzestan; the National Union of Iranian Retirees; Tehran Bus Drivers Union; Iran Metalworking Workers Union; and others.
After eight days the bosses agreed to bring back the suspended workers and give an immediate substantial pay raise while reviewing job classifications. Strikers were about to return to work when they learned the company was filing criminal complaints against 14 strikers, and stayed out one more day until the bosses agreed to withdraw the complaints.
The Metalworking Workers Union noted the similarities between the steelworkers’ demands and those of oil refinery and platform workers who have been holding weekly protests for months. The bosses don’t understand that the “demand for justice” will never fade, the union said.