In Solidarity with the Far-Flung Strike of Contract Workers in the Oil Industry and Support for their Demands!

In Solidarity with the Far-Flung Strike of Contract Workers in the Oil Industry and Support for their Demands!

The nationwide strike of contract and project workers in the oil industry is the most important and widespread labor strike in the 43 years since the revolution. The strike, which began on June 22 with the call of the Council for Organizing Protests by Oil Contract Workers, has encompassed workers of dozens of companies in the oil and petrochemical industry. In addition, a number of power plant workers and workers in several industrial plants have joined the strike.

The important demands of the striking workers in the current period are increasing the minimum wage base to 12 million Tomans (US$500) and regular and timely payment, proper implementation of the job classification plan, increasing shift work furlough, ensuring the safety and health of working and resting places, and canceling contract work and special law for work in free zones.

The demands of the workers on strike are in fact part of the general demands of the entire labor movement, which has been demanded in hundreds of previous strikes, and many workers have been sentenced to various punishments, from dismissal to imprisonment and flogging.

The strike of the contract workers is not only the most important workers' event after the revolution, but also the most important socio-political event after the presidential appointment and the appointment of Ebrahim Raisi as Khamenei's better man in this position and the workers' distrust of this appointment and “justice” and livelihood promises of this criminal element and Khamenei's devotee and extremist conservatives and his supporters in the Chamber of Commerce.

The hopeful and promising strike of the contract workers was not only welcomed and supported by workers and trade unions, teachers, and retirees, but also by student organizations, civil society organizations and many democratic parties and organizations. The support that trade unions in different countries have for the strike is unparalleled in scope. The wave of support of this strike from inside and outside is taking place at a time when the regime's domestic media rarely report on the strike and the workers' demands, and sometimes distort the issues surrounding it. Their aim in boycotting the strike news is to prevent the social feedback of the strike in a society full of protests and dissatisfaction and to link the workers' protests with other popular protests. However, the existence of social media and numerous Persian-language media have greatly diminished this media boycott.

The workers' strike in the oil industry, which is still the country's main source of income, has come as a surprise to the authorities and has left them in a state of panic. They were aware of the widespread anger and resentment accumulated among contract workers due to the pressure, discrimination, lawlessness, and unsafe and unsanitary working conditions imposed on the workers by themselves and employers but did not think that they would face such a widespread and organized strike. Because by abolishing labor laws and establishing lawlessness and using temporary contracts and entrusting the right of dismissal to the employer and the application of division and discrimination and creating a police environment and preventing the formation of unions and syndicates, they thought that they have taken away the possibility of a general strike in the oil industry, the regime's vital artery, from the workers.

The occurrence of this strike, at a critical juncture of appointments and promises of just livelihoods to the workers, and in the wake of the fraudulent propaganda campaign launched under the guise of justice of the conservative supporters of Raisi, shattered their notions and the most advanced part of the industrial working class has shown that it is more knowledgeable and experienced than to be deceived by the deceptive maneuvers of the ruling powers.

The continuation of this strike has many economic, political, and social consequences for the regime. That is why they have to think of a way to end the strike quickly. Their first attempt is to make the strike as fruitless as possible and to break it up by threatening the workers with dismissal and imprisonment and making false promises and creating a rift between the workers. Rouhani, Zanganeh, and the parliament's energy commission by pursuing a dual approach of promising wage increases and amending the budget bill as a deterrent to wage increases for permanent oil workers, and rejecting the demands of contract and temporary workers, are trying to create a rift between permanent and contract workers so that they can more easily suppress the strike.

Zanganeh's shameless remarks after the formation of the parliamentary energy commission, which falsely called the demands of contract workers illegal, and Rouhani's contradictory and deceptive remarks at the June 30 cabinet meeting, in which he separated contract workers from permanent workers and referred their demands and consideration to the owners of the contracting companies and the Ministry of Labor, all confirming the joint conspiracy of the state neoliberals and the conservatives in parliament to suppress the strike of the contract workers and the project workers. Unfortunately, existence of various employment contracts and outsourcing of oil industry work to various contractors and existence of multiple employment and wage discrimination, allow government officials and the mafia in control of the oil and petrochemical industry to achieve their goals by using these tools quite often. Legal discrimination between occupational groups is one of the most effective methods used by the government and employers to create divisions as well as increase profits. Discrimination, in addition to being a very provocative and controversial tool, also brings double benefits to employers. Whenever the regime sees that a movement is formed around a common desire that is likely to succeed, it starts preventing it by giving concessions to a limited number and depriving another large number.

The fact is that the demands of the 106,000 contract workers that Zanganeh, to deceive public opinion and justify repressive actions of the government, calls them illegal are perfectly legal, precisely because of the trampling of workers' basic rights by employers and with the support of the government and parliament and the repressive apparatus of lawbreaker employers, the vast majority of whom are rich kids of the regime’s officials and commanders of the army and relatives of government officials. However, this time the situation is not such that the government and the employers can completely ignore the demands of the workers. Even now, if the government is forced to accept a 25% increase in the wages of the permanent workers, it is because of the contract workers' strike.

This big move, although it has a demand and trade union aspect, but due to the heavy weight of this industry in the country's economy and the level of awareness in this part of the Iranian workers, whatever the outcome, it will seal its mark on the political developments in the fight against the Islamic Republic and attaining freedom and justice. Just as the popular uprisings of January 2018 and November 2019 had a profound effect on the relationship between society and the regime, and just as the civil movement boycotted the election and regime became even more isolated, this great strike will have its effect both in terms of boosting the self-confidence of the people and its practical achievements. Victories of the various struggles of the people in various forms against the policies and system of the Islamic Republic open the horizon and the way to freedom and social justice.

The Left Party of Iran (People's Fadaian) once again greets the workers participating in the nationwide oil strike, emphasizes support and solidarity with the militant workers, and wishes the workers victory in their struggle for justice. In our view, by maintaining solidarity, perpetuating and expanding their strike, and gaining the support of more workers' groups and other wage-earning and popular justice groups, workers can neutralize the repressive plans of the regime and employers and force them to accept their righteous demands.

Victory to the Glorious Strike of the Contract Workers of the Oil Industry!

Political-Executive Board of the Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian)

July 2, 2021