20 workers lost their lives in one week due to unsafe working conditions
Four workers lost their lives due to lack of the most basic safety provisions and equipment, according to the state-run media on Thursday, October 17, 2019. The incidents happened in Rasht (northern Iran), Tubas (northeast), and Chadegan (central Iran).
On Friday, October 11, eight workers lost their lives in work-related accidents in Torbat Heydarieh (northeast), Bukan (northwest), Qazvin (west), Lowshan (north), and Anbar-Abad (south).
The same day, the state-run news agency, IRNA, reported that two workers were electrocuted in a water well in Anbar-Abad (260 km south of Kerman in southern Iran).
The day before, a Chromite mine collapsed in the village of Goji in the town of Zaveh killing a miner. And a young farmer was killed in Doukchi village in Bukan when his tractor overturned, according to the state-run news agency, ILNA.
The same day, another state-run news agency, Rokna, reported that an unsafe and an unprofessionally excavated hole for sanitary pipes led to the emission of toxic gasses in the area, as a result of which two workers died of suffocation immediately in Pachenar village in Qazvin.
On October 10, ILNA quoted labor activists in the town of Lowshan in Gilan Province as saying that two workers died as a result of suffocation in a well dug 10 meters below ground.
These incidents represent only a small sample of tragedies caused by a lack of minimum safety tools and equipment that are reported by state-run media. The true figures are much higher.
Iran under the mullahs’ rule ranks 102nd in the world when it comes to compliance with safety procedures. These statistics expose the excessive exploitation of workers taking place in Iran.
The Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran expresses solidarity with the families of the victims and urges all labor syndicates, unions and rights activists to condemn the anti-labor policies of the religious fascism ruling Iran and support the rights of workers in Iran.
The Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 21, 2019
