Over 8,000 Oil Workers Go on Strike Demanding Higher Wages

Over 8,000 oil project workers across more than 60 contracting companies have launched a strike throughout various regions of Iran.

The strike, which began this past Wednesday, was organized by the Council for Organizing Oil Contract-Workers' Protests, demanding changes including wage increases and a more humane work schedule.

In recent years, Iran's oil and gas industry has increasingly substituted regular employees with contract workers, subjecting them to tough working conditions and low wages.

The striking workers are not only challenging their immediate labor conditions but are also advocating for broader reforms in the industry, emphasizing the necessity for improved dormitory conditions and enhanced safety measures in the workplace.

These protests are part of a larger trend of increasing labor unrest in Iran, where workers have been consistently voicing their grievances over delayed wage payments, low wages, arbitrary layoffs, and the negative impacts of privatization policies.

Compounding the tensions, protesting workers have been receiving threatening text messages from supporters of the contractors, a move seen by many as an attempt to suppress the growing dissent, according to Alireza Mirghaffari, a member of the board of the Supreme Council of Labor Associations.

Over the last six years, the value of Iran's national currency, the rial, has plummeted by fifteen times, leading to rampant inflation and widespread poverty among millions of Iranians.