Lay-offs of automobile parts manufacturing workers soars in Iran

NCRI – At least 122,000 automobile parts manufacturing workers have been laid off in Iran in the past year as the regime’s economy flounders into crisis, the latest figures have revealed.

Mohammad Reza Najafi-Manesh of Automobile Parts Manufacturing association, speaking to the state-run ILNA news agency blamed the massive lay-offs on the cash-strapped Iranian economy.

He said: “Prior to last year’s deepening of the economic crisis, at least 350,000 workers were engaged in automobile parts manufacturing. With the addition of currency crisis, at least 30 to 50 per cent of these workers were made redundant.

Many other workers had also had three shifts of work cut to one as demand for new cars falls in the regime, and 137 assembly plants were closed down, he said.

Experts blame Iran’s crisis and mass factory closures on tightening International sanctions on the regime, which is defying the world in its bid to acquire a nuclear weapon.