Tabriz Tractor Engine Company Workers’ Strike Enters Fourth Day
The strike by workers at the “Motor Manufacturing Company” of Tabriz Tractor Manufacturing Company continued on Tuesday, February 1st in protest against “low wages and salaries” and “unfulfilled management promises,” entering its fourth day. This is the latest protest by these workers in recent months.
These workers have not yet received a clear response from the management of this industrial complex, and according to the Iran Labor News website, the general manager of the complex is merely “replacing managers at this factory” but there is still no news of wage increases or other minimum workers’ demands.
Some of the striking workers’ demands include: wage increases applied through work decrees, implementation of job classification, formation of a workers’ council, payment of proportionate and updated productivity rights, job security, and change of employment status.
Workers at the Tabriz Tractor Motor Manufacturing Company also held a gathering in November of this year at one of the factory premises in protest of their salary and employment conditions.
ILNA, the Iran Labor News Agency, reported that in continuing their protest, these workers stated that “the current situation is not befitting of the country’s component manufacturing hub,” and called for “intervention by provincial officials” to resolve their problems.
Tabriz Tractor Motor Manufacturing Company operates as one of Iran’s largest diesel engine manufacturers with various applications in agriculture, automotive, industrial, and road construction machinery sectors, and is considered a supplier of a large portion of the country’s industrial units’ “driving force” needs.
The Free Union of Workers’ Channel also wrote in this regard: “Workers, after discussing wages and benefits, have accused the company’s new management of mismanagement and demanded the formation of a workers’ council at the factory.”
The head of the Social Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly said yesterday regarding the situation of increasing minimum workers’ wages in the coming year: “Workers’ wages are determined in the Supreme Labor Council, but in a meeting we will have with the Labor Minister on Tuesday, we plan to raise this issue in that meeting so that the groundwork is prepared for us to take maximum possible measures and bring the wage increase figure closer to the law.”
Esmaili added: “Article 41 of the Labor Law states that wage increases should be based on inflation, based on inflation meaning 45 percent; we are not saying let’s take 45 percent and then not be able to implement it, but all our effort is that considering the issue of eliminating preferential foreign exchange rates, the issue of rising basic goods prices, and also expected inflation that will be created under the influence of various factors, we try as much as possible to bring the wage increase figure closer to the law.”
Source: Voice of America
