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Workers in Iran staged a sit-in and other protests in October and November for back wages, pay raises, and better working conditions.

The semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported that on November 12 Iran Telecommunication Industries (ITI) workers in Tehran prevented the main stockholder and members of the executive board of the company from entering their central office. The workers were protesting the nonpayment of their wages for the last 11 months. After a few hours security forces intervened. The workers allowed the bosses to enter the building under the condition that they would address their grievances, ILNA reported.

A week earlier 1,000 ITI workers had demonstrated in front of the provincial government offices in Shiraz, calling for the dismissal of the governor. Workers were demanding nine months’ back pay.

Four hundred workers at the Aluminum Factory in Arak rallied in the plant November 15 and pulled a Basij emblem off the wall. A week earlier the workers had held a protest rally in the factory yard.

The Basij is an auxiliary formation of the Pasdaran, or Guards of the Islamic Revolution, the military force that is increasingly dominant in the government. The Basij and Pasdaran have been buying up more and more privately owned or government-auctioned industries. Aluminum workers in Arak have protested because the Basij is taking over the company and refusing to pay workers back wages.

As the pace of factory cl... >>>