Corona: Workers at a crossroads between life and death

A specter looms over the world, threatening the livelihoods of one and a half billion workers. Job security and wages are the main demands, but priorities and achievements are now distorted. In Iran, too, the working class will be the first target of economic misery.

305 million full-time jobs have been lost. This is the result of Corona, and the world is on the verge of the worst economic recession in the past 90 years. In the Great Depression of 1929, the unemployment rate in the United States reached 25%. Now the International Labor Organization warns that the worsening economic conditions will affect the livelihoods of 1.6 billion workers around the world. For millions of workers who have no savings or financial credit, the loss of income is nothing less than the loss of access to food, security and a future.

Around the world, 3.3 billion people earn their living from daily wages and informal jobs. They have no insurance or medical facilities, they have never heard of “home office,” and their cheap and tangible existence is needed by employers. The International Labor Organization says that in the first month of the coronavirus crisis, the income of this group of workers has decreased by about 60%.

In Iran, the Ministry of Labor is silent, but the Parliamentary Research Center has estimated that between 2.87 million and 6.431 million people currently employed will lose their jobs due to the spread of the virus. This decimal figure seems a bit inaccurate, considering the population of 14 million workers. In one case alone, 70% of construction and seasonal workers have lost their jobs. They have also asked for the forgiveness of a large number of workers in service and manufacturing units; they have said, "Go ahead and we will inform you."

International Workers' Day has arrived in such circumstances. Everyone has been asked to stay home, unaware that this advice should be conditional for workers and the disadvantaged: "If you have money, shelter, and insurance, stay home."

Bad year, year of shock

There will be no gatherings, marches, rallies or ceremonies to mark Labor Day this year. At least the good news is that no one is going to jail just for participating in a May Day ceremony. Labor activists in Iran have launched a Twitter campaign demanding a minimum wage of 9 million tomans, and independent organizations have issued statements. The first paragraph of the 15-point resolution of the “Free Workers Union” is dedicated to an immediate increase in the minimum wage, payment of unemployment insurance to unemployed workers and young people ready to work. The Vahed Company Workers’ Union and independent organizations of teachers, workers and retirees have also called for the release of all imprisoned political and trade union activists, equal pay for women and men, a minimum wage commensurate with inflation, and an immediate end to child labor.

With 40% inflation and a weak labor market, Iran’s working class has become more destitute than ever. The threat of COVID-19 has provided an opportunity for employers to institutionalize cheap labor, wage deferrals, and verbal contracts. Construction workers, daily wage earners, street vendors, workers in trade unions and services, and uninsured workers… all have been left to fend for themselves in the COVID-19 crisis without any income or support. They cannot even earn money by ferrying passengers as they normally would; there are no passengers…

ILNA writes that some workers at the Fasa sugar factory have resorted to scavenging and buying and selling old plastic and waste materials due to months of unpaid wages. The head of the Tehran Restaurant and Self-Service Owners Union reports that 1,100 workers have been fired in Tehran over the past two months. 700 drivers of the Qazvin city transportation fleet have been working half shifts for two months and their salary is 55,000 tomans per day. 50 workers at the Shin Baft factory in Sanandaj have been fired. 200 workers at “Iran Merinos Qom” have been referred to the insurance department…

Simultaneously with the Corona crisis, another disaster has fallen on working families. The Supreme Labor Council approved a basic wage that is only enough for daily bread and cheese. The poverty line is 4,940,000 Tomans, but at the discretion of employers and the government, the minimum wage for workers was set at 1,835,000 Tomans. Doesn't this mean facilitating and accelerating misery?

Half plus one population

In the 2016 Iranian census, the number of workers in the country was recorded at 14 million. This figure includes those covered by labor laws and social security insurance. Self-employed, daily wage earners, and seasonal or non-contract workers are not included in this statistic. The same official statistic, including the 2.3-person household size, covers nearly 60 percent of Iran’s population.

This population, with a meager income, can barely afford the minimum food and drink, let alone housing, clothing, transportation, medicine, treatment, or education. The economic recession and the closure of production units are also taking away this shaky financial support from working families. The head of the Mazandaran Construction Workers' Association has announced that workers in this trade do not even have the money to buy bread.

Javanmir Moradi, a member of the Kermanshah Workers' Union and a member of the Free Workers' Union of Iran, told DW: "The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the challenges of workers. Seasonal and construction workers have been left stranded and have suffered the most. They are both enduring the general pressure caused by the disease and are forced to go to work while health protocols are not being followed in the workplace. The strange thing is that instead of releasing prisoners in these circumstances, a number of other labor and civil activists have been summoned and arrested. The shadow of unemployment, insecurity, and security threats continues to hang over workers, even in a situation where everyone should be concerned about saving lives."

Silent deaths

The employer is responsible for ensuring safety standards, but due to contractual agreements and the lack of workers’ insurance, there is no legal oversight in production centers. In the first half of 2019, the forensic medicine department recorded 898 deaths from work-related accidents, 354 of which were related to falls from heights. Accordingly, an average of five Iranian workers die in work-related accidents every day. Out of every three construction workers, one reaches retirement age and two others become disabled. Dozens of kolbars die in the highlands of Kurdistan every year. In the most recent accident, two workers fell into the machine’s tank while working in the cardboard recycling section of a factory in Najafabad Industrial City and were crushed.

Alireza Navaei, a member of the International Workers' Protection Alliance in Iran, told DW: "The number of workers who are victims of violations of labor standards is six times higher than the number of work accidents. They get tuberculosis in factories and production units, develop lung problems, and suffer from osteoarthrosis... There are no clear statistics on the issue of Corona to say how many workers have been affected. Supposedly, 40 people have been infected at the Urmia Petrochemical Plant, but they are hiding it."

In his review of the labor record of 2019, he points to the increase in repression and infiltration of labor organizations by security forces: "We recorded 1,259 protests in 2019, which is a 25 percent decrease compared to 2018, and the first reason for that was the rampant repression. Every year, the most labor protests take place in March, but this year, the labor community, like the rest, was involved in the coronavirus. The next point is that after the 2019 protests in the Ahvaz Sugar and Steel Complex, Basij students and security forces focused their attention on being directly present in the production units. They tell the workers that there is no need to protest or gather. Tell us your words and demands, we will mediate and get you what you want."

Two years ago, hundreds of workers, at the invitation of independent organizations, chanted in front of the parliament: "Freedom, housing, bread, is our inalienable right." Now, workers must bargain with their employers for the most obvious basic rights, including receiving masks or hygiene products at work, and settle for the bare minimum for fear of being purged. The economic consequences of the pandemic have not yet become apparent, but the sound of poverty and inequality is heard. It is not far from the fact that working-class families will become in need of even empty bread, and tenants will become homeless. Perhaps, in these circumstances, congratulations on Labor Day will be salt on the wounds of these families.

Source: DW