Strike and Protest by Thousands of Isfahan Steelworkers

Khamenei and IRGC Exploit Workers by Controlling the Economy

On Saturday, December 2, thousands of workers at the Isfahan Steel Company went on strike to protest low wages, poor living conditions, the failure to implement the job classification plan, and the government’s failure to meet their demands. Despite security measures and threats from the security forces, the workers walked off the job and marched to the company’s administration building.

The strike included workers from all three shifts. The workers chanted, “Neither batons nor flattery will solve the problem of low and insignificant wages.”

The Revolutionary Guards and other organs affiliated with Khamenei have taken control of a large part of Iran’s economy and have become the main employer. They are engaged in ruthless plunder and savage exploitation of workers and laborers.

The minimum wage for Iranian workers in 1402 (2023-2024) is 30% below the living wage and their purchasing power is 25-45% lower than the previous year. This gap is increasing every day.

According to government media and officials, despite a 50% general inflation rate and an 84% food inflation rate, the minimum wage set for 1402 is 125 million Rials below the poverty line. (Khabaronline website – January 9, 2023) And “The lives of 90% of workers and laborers have fallen below the poverty line.” (Hadi Hagh-Shenas, former member of the regime’s Majlis, Taadol newspaper, April 7, 2023).

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who saluted the thousands of striking and protesting Isfahan Steelworkers who have risen up for their stolen rights, said that the only way to confront Khamenei and the mullahs’ criminal and plundering regime, and the only way to achieve the legitimate rights of workers and laborers, is to strike, protest, and resist. We must not allow the ruling religious fascism in Iran to continue to corrupt, commit crimes, and plunder in silence.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
December 2, 2023