Contract Workers at Petrochemical Facilities in Bushehr Province Stage Strike

On the eve of International Workers’ Day, contract workers at petrochemical facilities in Bushehr Province went on strike at three petrochemical complexes—Bushehr Petrochemical, Asaluyeh Phase 19, and Kian Petrochemical—in protest against violations of their professional and livelihood rights.

According to reports on social media, this large-scale strike at Asaluyeh Phase 19 took place on Monday, April 25, in protest against the meager wage increase provided by the government to these workers.

Protesting workers chanted the slogan “20-10,” demanding the establishment of 20-10 work shifts, meaning 20 days of work in exchange for 10 days off.

Most contract workers work far from home, and the 20-10 shift schedule would give them the opportunity to visit their families.

On Sunday, the Free Union of Iranian Workers also reported that a group of workers at Kian Petrochemical in Asaluyeh had gone on strike.

According to this report, oil project workers had announced that if their demands were not met by April 24, they would “launch a widespread strike starting from the 25th.”

Previously, last month in February, workers at Tehran’s Tandguyeh Petrochemical facility staged a strike at the complex.

Before that, the nationwide strike by Iranian oil industry workers that began on June 20, 2021, lasted for weeks, during which approximately 105,000 contract and company employees of the Ministry of Petroleum launched a virtual campaign demanding “the complete removal of contractors and intermediary companies.”

During that round of worker strikes, many projects at oil facilities in more than 96 refineries and petrochemical centers and power plants in 19 Iranian cities came to a halt.

Source: Voice of America