Workers are not Pharaohs’ or Ancient Empire’s Slaves

For the last thirty years– and certainly the period before that– Iranian workers have never really benefited from internationally recognized labor rights enjoyed by workers in other countries. For example, they have have never had the right to form organizations which defend their trade union or social rights; nor have they had, as sellers of their labor power, any say on wage levels or working conditions. Collective contracts, strikes, and protest gatherings have never been recognized as routine or established part of a worker’s social life. And although in certain periods, notably the 40′s and the early years of the revolution, Iranian workers have made some limited gains in advancing their demands, more often than not, these gains had been made possible by a break-down in the centralized government functions than anything else.

But the reality of the situation is that Iranian workers chafe under such deplorable conditions that the present state of work and employment is far more onerous than the absence of internationally-recognized trade union rights.

It was just a short while ago when transportation costs were hiked several folds. Then without any warning, they’ve been raised double the previous rate. Subsidized milk which is staple food for millions of working families is soon to be eliminated. In these last two months, loans for housing have increased by 30 to 50 percent, depending on the particular lender. Bread and energy prices have increased up to four times the previous levels while all the remaining staples are to be declared at new much-higher prices.

It was only last year when the government, in the face of gold merchants’ strike, backed down from collecting 3 percent value added taxes from them and quietly shifted it onto the the consumers. Through these increases on consumer goods– be it gold and steel, food, detergents, water, electricity or gas– they transferred millions of dollars from the very bread we workers eat right to their coffers. Thus they resorted to collecting money from us workers for drinking, having a piece of bread, and cloth to wear. The conditions imposed on the living conditions of the workers by the subsidies axing program has not been only limited to collections under value added taxes and the multiple times increase in transportation, food, water, clothing, housing, etc.

Anyone in this county but the workers is free to do anything to safeguard their rights. The state is free to increase the prices, the gold merchants and traders are free to refuse paying the value added taxes on their fortune, the city and inter-city transportation services owners are free to increase the prices to compensate for the cuts in energy subsidies, the management and factory owners are free to downsize on account of energy costs. They are free to increase their prices in order to maintain their profits or close down shop if they choose to. Never mind the hundreds and thousands of workers who would be left without jobs. Landlords are free to increase the housing prices by 50 percent or whatever they desire to compensate for inflation after the subsidies axing plan. In short, all who have had their profits and only their profits affected by the subsidies axing plan are free to maintain their profit margins while millions of workers are not allowed to ask for higher wages to maintain their living conditions.

As if this is not enough, the situation has created favorable conditions for employers and owners of capital to impose slave-like conditions on the workers. This is such that in the last year, especially in the last three months, short-term contracts have become the norm with the result that countless thousands have been laid off while the rest have faced wage cuts on an unprecedented scale. Under these conditions, capital is refusing to pay workers wages going back several months and sometimes quarterly payments are stipulated at the time of signing a new contract. They ask workers to work longer hours, cut lunch and transportation services, and refuse to extend contracts for senior workers, effectively firing them. They also hang the fear of non-renewal above workers’ heads like the Damocles sword to extract maximum concessions.

At a time when the issue of plant closures and layoffs is ballooning due to cuts in subsidized energy, the state has embarked on re-writing the laws on unemployment benefits to the detriment of workers. They are writing the new labor code in the face of the current abysmal situation so that they would have a legal framework to legitimate such slave like conditions. All these imposed on workers following the subsidies cuts is nothing but the elimination of the most elementary requirements for maintaining a decent life.

In my opinion, those who have imposed such harsh conditions on Iranian workers have undoubtedly lost their historical memory and are mistaking Iranian workers with the slaves of the times of the Pharaohs and ancient imperial dynasties; a mistake which could never result in the desired outcome for those planning them.

Source: Iran Labor Report