Protest rally of Azerbaijan railway workers
Azerbaijan Railway workers continued their new round of protests, gathering to achieve their wage demands. Yesterday, Tabriz Railway workers also blocked train routes. Iran has witnessed dozens of protest rallies in recent days.
Continuing their protests of the past few days, Azerbaijan Railway workers stopped work and gathered today, Wednesday, March 6, to protest their wage demands.
The HRANA news agency announced on Twitter that a number of workers of the Azerbaijan Technical Buildings Lines have gathered at Ajabshir station "to protest the management's performance in paying their wage demands."
The news agency also wrote in another tweet that a group of workers on technical construction lines "in the railway areas of Hormozgan and Azerbaijan" have gone on strike and gathered to demand their wages.
Tabriz workers block train route
According to local news agencies, yesterday, employees of the Tabriz railway transportation department blocked the train tracks by gathering on the railway tracks in protest of not receiving their two-month salaries. The closure of the train tracks by the Tabriz railway employees came after several days of protests and strikes by them along with other employees of Iranian railway lines.
The Director General of Azerbaijan Railways confirmed the news to the state-run IRNA news agency, saying that the reason for the workers' protest and closure of the railway lines was the non-payment of their two months of arrears. Shapur Aslani noted that officials are pursuing this to receive money from the government to pay the workers' salaries.
However, some sources quoted Tabriz Railway workers as saying that they had not received their salaries and holiday pay for four months and were no longer able to cover their living expenses. The Azerbaijan Railway is one of the nineteen regions of Iran's railways, with a total length of about 1,100 kilometers.
Yesterday, in addition to the rally in Azerbaijan, there were reports of protest rallies by railway workers in Hormozgan, Lorestan, Zagros, Mashhad, and Andimeshk. These rallies disrupted the movement of a large number of trains and the movement of passengers.
“At least three months of wage arrears”
Protests and gatherings by railway workers are not new, but the act of gathering on the tracks and blocking the train route, which rarely happens, is indicative of the dire living conditions and severe pressures on them. Last Sunday, reports were published of workers blocking the Mashhad-Ahvaz passenger train route and maintaining the railway's technical buildings in Andimeshk. Last May, workers at the Hepco factory in Arak blocked the north-south railway in Iran in protest of their livelihood problems.
This is not the first protest movement by railway workers in Iran this year (2018). Last October, workers on several railway lines had also held protest rallies to receive wage demands. Before that, a large number of workers on the railway technical construction line, including in the areas of Sirjan, Khorasan, Bandar Turkmen, Sarakhs, Shahrood, Damghan, Semnan, Neyshabur, Sabzevar, Kashmar and Attar stations, workers on the railway construction lines of Zanjan and the railway areas of Hormozgan, Islamshahr, Tehran, Karaj, Lorestan, Azerbaijan, Zagros, Shahrood, Damghan, Semnan, Ahmadabad, Hormozgan and several other stations, had held widespread union protests.
A new round of protests by workers on technical construction lines in the railway areas of Hormozgan, Lorestan, Zagros, Mashhad, Andimeshk, and Azerbaijan began on March 1.
Last Monday, ILNA news agency, referring to a protest rally by workers at their workplace due to not receiving “at least three months of wage arrears, along with several years of seniority from the employer,” quoted railway workers as saying: “Every now and then we hold union protests to pay our wage arrears, but each time the employer deposits part of our demands to end the workers’ protest.” The news agency called on “officials” to “think of a solution.”
The number of workers maintaining the line and equipment of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Company is about 6,500 people, who are mainly employed by the company through contracting companies and on temporary contracts.
Iran has witnessed many protests and demonstrations among different segments of society in recent days. A group of workers from the housing cooperative of the United Company gathered in front of the Ministry of Labor building in Tehran, a number of retirees from the Ahvaz and Isfahan steel mills, a group of employees working in the offices of the Justice Shares Association in Tehran, a number of workers from the Mehran Municipality, and a three-day nationwide sit-in by teachers were among the protests in recent days centered on livelihood problems.
Source: DW
