Solidarity with Iran’s striking oil, gas & petrochemical workers

CP Industrial Organiser, Alex Gordon has issued a call for international working-class solidarity with Iran’s 20,000 striking oil, gas and petrochemical workers. Nationwide strikes by Iran’s oil and gas contract workers began on 20 June and spread to over 110 companies. Striking workers are demanding wage increases, permanent contracts, a 14 days-on, 14 days-off work rotation (the ‘14-14 Campaign’), better dormitories, more safety measures and removal of corrupt middleman contractors. In 2021, 110,000 oil workers took strike action against temporary contracts, low wages, lack of union recognition, unhygienic dormitories, poor quality food and government contractors undermining pensions, sickness and unemployment insurance by underpaying workers’ social security contributions. Alex Gordon said: “The fight for safe working and living conditions, decent wages and benefits and especially against super-exploitation embedded in the sub-contracting model of employment, is a common feature of working-class struggles today across the capitalist world. The Communist Party’s Industrial Committee sends solidarity to Iranian oil workers striking for their collective rights at work and freedom to organise in the interests of their class.” On 22 June this year, the Council for Organising Non-Permanent Oil Workers’ Protests (Third Pillar) called on outsourced workers to join the strikes. The Council says strikes will intensify if demands are not met. Iran’s oil and gas workers who historically earned premium wages and benefits, have in recent years been increasingly outsourced to government middlemen who underpay workers and impose harsh working conditions. Iran’s crude oil and gas exports surged to 1.7m barrels per day in May 2024, hitting a 5- year high since the US imposed full sanctions in May 2019. The Tudeh Party of Iran (footnote below) urges communist and worker parties’ and international trade union organisations’ active support to the striking workers and to express solidarity with their just struggle for peace, legal rights, trade union freedoms, and social justice. END. Footnote: Call for Global Support for and Solidarity with the Extensive Strike Movement of Thousands of Project Workers in Iran’s Oil Industry and Associated Industries! | Statement of the Tudeh Party of Iran, 25 June 2024 https://www.tudehpartyiran.org/en/2024/06/26/statement-of-the-tudeh-party-of-iran-call-for- global-support-for-and-solidarity-with-the-extensive-strike-movement-of-thousands-of-project-workers- in-irans-oil-industry-and-associated-industries/