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Iran: Retirees of steel industry assemble to protest delayed wages, dividends and halt in health insurance coverage

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On Tuesday, April 19, a protest gathering by thousands of retirees of the steel industry continued for the third consecutive day in front of the regime’s parliament. The retirees who mostly have brought along their families coming from Isfahan to Tehran are protesting their unpaid wages and dividends in the past four months. The protestors chanted “Justice, justice, we shall not give in to abjection” and carried handwritten placards that read “Whatever they promised to us was thin air; whatever they told us was deception and duplicity.”

The suppressive forces tore up protesters’ banners and placards and raised terror and fear in them in an attempt to prevent the expansion of this protest and to stop other people from joining them.

Retirees of the steel industry had previously assembled in front of Isfahan’s Governor Building on March 5 demanding their trampled rights. There they chanted “leave Syria and think about our situation,” showing their loath for the regime’s policy of export of terrorism and fundamentalism and the wasting of the wealth of the deprived people of Iran for the purpose of war-fomenting interference in Syria.

Similarly, on December 6-7, the retired steel workers of Isfahan, along with their colleagues in Karaj and Tehran, assembled in front of the office of Rouhani, the mullahs’ President, as well as regime’s Ministry of Finance.

The Pensioners Fund’s halt to the workers’ health coverage is yet another problem of laborers. This is while they have paid health insurance premiums for 30 years and now in their old age are in need of health insurance more than ever.

Mohammadreza Ebrahimpour, a parliamentarian of the regime, acknowledged: “The steel retirees who have now assembled in front of the parliament for two or three days are around 100,000 retired workers who have not received their wages for months.” (Farhang Radio – April 18, 2016)

For years, under the pretense of insurance premium payments, the Iranian regime has deducted enormous amounts from the retirees’ fund with over 1.2 million members. However, due to the pillage of the funds, the regime’s officials are now talking about a three thousand billion toman shortage of budget. To make up for this shortage, they are imposing pressure on and getting the money out of the pockets of the retired workers who are living very difficult lives.

Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
April 20, 2016