HRANA Recap: This Week’s Protests in Iran

According to HRANA, the news agency of Human Rights Activists, a number of protests took place this week in Iran, many of which were continuations of ongoing movements.  Read our recap below for details, photos, and videos from the demonstrations.

Saturday, February 19

In response to a call by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teacher’s Trade Association, retired and working teachers and educators in dozens of cities across the country held protests before the Ministry of Education (and Parliament in Tehran). During these protests, at least 7 people were arrested. The teacher’s demands include the implementation of an already-enacted plan whereby teacher’s incomes will be increased depending on rank to up to 80% of the salaries of faculty members, official employment of teachers with temporary job contracts, fulfilling severance pay for the year, improving living conditions of contracted teachers, enforcing Article 30 of Iran’s Constitution, free education, improving the quality of education, paying student’s insurance and creating a limit of 16 students per class.

Along with teachers, a number of injured veterans of the Iran-Iraq War assembled before Parliament in Tehran to protest against poor living conditions.

A group of personnel of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare assembled before their office in Tehran to protest against a cut in some part of their benefits. More than one million tomans from their income has been reduced.

A group of the bus drivers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company gathered before the entrance of the bus terminal to protest against low wages and poor conditions of the vehicles. They rolled out an empty tablecloth on the sidewalk as a sign of their hard conditions and poor livelihoods.

A group of applicants who passed the Recruitment Exam of the Ministry of Education and are still waiting for recruitment held protests before the Ministry of Education in Tehran.

A number of retired workers of the Sugarcane Agro-Industry Company Haft-Tappeh held protests on company premises to ask for their demands.

Sunday, February 20

A number of the injured veterans of the Iran-Iraq War held protests before the Court of Administrative Justice in Tehran. They asked that their poor living conditions be addressed.

About 70 service workers working on Line 4 of the Tehran Metro assembled before the Tehran Metro Company building to protest against delays in payment. Reportedly, more than two months of their wages have not been paid.

Retirees and pensioners of the Social Security Organization assembled before the organization’s office of this organization in Bojnurd, Rasht and Arak cities and before the governorate building in Tabriz. Their demands include levelling up wages, addressing issues regarding supplementary insurance and improving their living conditions.

For the second consecutive day, workers of the Coal Mine Company Alborze-Sharghi Damghan assembled on mine premises. They asked to change their contracts with the company, chanting “the contractor [says] shame on you! Leave the complex!”

A group of retirees and pensioners of Fulad’s pension fund assembled before the fund’s office to ask for their demands.

A group of workers working as Parks and Gardens Maintenance for the municipality of Karaj gathered before the city council to ask for their demands.

A number of teachers who were dispatched to work abroad gathered before the Planning and Budget Organization in Tehran to ask for their delayed payments. According to one of these teachers, 1 to 25 thousand euros of their wages from 2005 to 2016 have not yet been paid.

A number of teachers in Kish City assembled before the Kish Free Zone Organization to ask for their demands, including the implementation of the Educator Ranking Plan.

Monday, February 21

A group of workers working in Green Maintenance Services for the Municipality of Kut Abdollah protested in front of the Governorate building in Ahvaz City. They asked for the payment of three months of delayed wages.

A group of locomotive drivers in Razavi Khorasan Province gathered with their families before the train station of Mashhad City to protest a lack of safety at work and technical supervising, and using out of date locomotives and other devices which increase workload and pressure on the workers.

A number of nurses and healthcare staff held protests before the Ministry of Health in Tehran.

The workers of the Coal Mine Company Alborze-Sharghi Damghan gathered before company offices in Shahroud City. They had held protests in recent days on coal mine premises. Workers said that so far none of the authorities have responded to their demands.

Dozens of personnel of the Gilan Telecommunication Company assembled before company headquarters in Rasht City. They protested against the conditions of their contracts, flaws in the implementation of the Job Classification Plan and supplementary insurance issues.

A group of municipal workers in Zone 3 of Khorramabad City assembled before the Lorestan governorate building. They asked for six months of delayed payments, benefits and employer insurance contribution.

Tuesday, February 22

In response to a call by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, retired and working teachers and educators held protests in more than 76 cities across the country. These protests were held before Parliament in Tehran and the Ministry of Education in other cities. During these protests, several educators and teacher’s union activists were arrested.

Personnel of the Agricultural Insurance Fund held protests before the office of the fund in Tehran. One of the protestors said: “We are the personnel of an insurance company, but we ourselves are not insured. We are working under these poor living conditions for long years. The wages are unfairly low and managers determine the income arbitrarily.”

For the second consecutive day, a group of personnel of the Gilan Telecommunication Company assembled before the company headquarters in Rasht City to protest against the conditions of their contracts, flaws in the implementation of the Job Classification Plan and supplementary insurance issues.

In protest against a failure to respond to their demands, a group of locomotive drivers in Razavi Khorasan Province gathered before the train station of Mashhad City.

A number of firefighters protested before the municipality of Tehran. They said that despite having a hard job, they don’t earn enough to afford their livelihood.

A group of workers of the municipality of Yasuj City held protests before the governorate building of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province. One of the protestors said: “It is about five months that the municipality has not paid our wages. Also, we have not yet received the end of year bonuses and other benefits from last year. We filed a complaint to the Office of the Ministry of Labour and the municipality has been condemned to pay 15 million in compensation. Nonetheless, they refuse to pay it.”

A group of teachers who passed the Ministry of Education Recruitment Exam, yet have not been recruited by the Ministry, held protests before the Ministry building.

A group of personnel of Eat Azerbaijan Telecommunication Company went on strike and assembled before the company headquarters. They protested against delays in wages and bonuses.

Wednesday, February 24

A number of contracted teachers held protests before the Ministry of Education in Tehran by rolling out an empty tablecloth as a sign of their poor living conditions. These teachers said that in 2009, a plan was enacted by Parliament that allows the Ministry of Education to directly recruit contracted teachers who had passed some courses. However, due to a high number of contracted teachers, the Ministry was not able to recruit all 100,000 teachers. Therefore, teachers were divided into three groups to be recruited in three phases. These teachers claim that such prioritization was not based on merit. Those who were recommended and endorsed by acquaintances in the Ministry were being recruited, while the teachers in the third phase never got their contracts.

A group of workers who are working for state-owned enterprises gathered before Parliament in Tehran to protest against low wages and benefits. According to these protestors, a 10 percent increase in basic income, rather than the whole income, cannot catch up with ever-increasing living costs.

Workers of the Municipality of Rasht City assembled before the governorate building. They asked to increase wages and year-end bonuses.

A number of stakeholders of the Homa Pension Fund gathered before Parliament in Tehran to protest against an enacted bill whereby the fund is assigned to the Civil Servants Pension Organization.

A group of citizens who lost their money in a cryptocurrency network known as “King Money”, run by the Baadraan Gostaran Company, gathered before the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade in Mashhad and Tehran cities. They asked for the prosecution of this company for fraudulent acts.

For the second consecutive day, personnel of the East Azerbaijan Telecommunication Company held protests on company premises in Tabriz City. They protested against compulsory retirement and delays in payments.

A group of teachers who passed the Ministry of Education recruitment exam protested before the Ministry of Education. Despite promises, the Ministry has refused to recruit them.

Thursday, February 24

A group of contracted teachers gathered before Parliament. About 88,000 teachers work with temporary contracts. According to the law, they should have been recruited by mid-February.

A group of shareholders of the stock market held protests before Parliament to protest against the incompetence of parliament members and the government in economic management.

Workers of the Abadan Petrochemical Company went on strike in protest against unpaid wages.

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