Iranian oil and gas workers’ strike expands to 24,000

Amid rising inflation and the deteriorating economic situation in Iran, the oil and gas workers’ strike expanded to 24,000 workers on Friday, entering its 23rd day.

The strike began on June 19 at the initiative of the unofficial council for organizing protests of oil contract workers and united workers from “123 companies” in the oil and gas sector.

The workers are demanding fundamental changes, including the elimination of middlemen, wage increases and improved working conditions, but they warned that the strikes would escalate if their demands were not met.

In addition, the US-based news agency Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Saturday that employees of the Iranian Offshore Oil Company on the island of Lavan in the Persian Gulf had staged a factory protest to express their displeasure at the ignored demands.

Other problems faced by contract workers in the oil and gas industry include inadequate housing, inadequate working conditions and inadequate occupational health and safety measures, all of which have not been adequately addressed.

Tensions have been exacerbated by protesting workers receiving threatening text messages from supporters of the contractors, which many see as an attempt to suppress growing opposition, according to Alireza Mirghaffari, a member of the Supreme Council of Workers’ Unions.

In recent years, the Iranian oil and gas sector has seen an increasing number of regular employees replaced by contract workers who work under harsh conditions and for low wages.

In February, it was assured that the Job Classification Act (JCA) would be implemented and workers would receive their corresponding salaries by May. However, this promise has yet to be fulfilled. The lack of job classifications means that workers are trapped for years in precarious temporary employment contracts and receive different wages for the same work.

The JCA covers only a portion of Iranian wage earners; their jobs are not classified, which has now become the norm.

Initially, 8,000 contract workers from over 60 oil companies took part in the strike. There are now 23,000 strikers and the protest is rapidly gaining momentum.

These protests are part of a larger wave of labor unrest in Iran, triggered by delayed wage payments, low wages and layoffs, which have repeatedly led to disruptions in various industries since 2018.

Over the past decade, many parts of the oil and gas industry have been outsourced to influential regime insiders as middlemen. These contractors underpay workers and subject them to harsh working conditions. Traditionally, oil workers in Iran received the highest salaries and the best benefits.