Iranian Auto Workers Sacked for Strike Action

Tens of Workers Sacked for Participating in a Strike
Statement by a group of Iran Khodro (Auto) Workers
Translated by Workers Left Unity Iran

Tens of workers who staged a short strike in March 2006, have been sacked by Iran Khodro factory in Iran . Following this a number of protests took place in many sections of the plant with workers shouting : “stop the sackings”, “workers should be allowed to return to their work”, “strike is the absolute right of the workers” . A group of workers in this plant published the following statement:

Fellow workers, friends,

The management of Iran Khodro proved once more that it only knows the language of aggression and sackings in defence of capital and capitalism. They proved yet again that they recognise no law but the law of the jungle and that they have no respect for human rights and international Legislation.
Friends, fellow workers,

We became aware that over the last few weeks, tens of our colleagues were sacked by the management and the deputy human resource manager for supporting the strike of 8th of March 2006 (in support of better payments for record annual production). We workers of Iran Khodro while condemning this announce:The right to strike is an absolute right of workers, a right recognised throughout the world, today no one is sacked or arrested for going on strike. The right to strike is the only weapon of the workforce in confronting the management’s injustices.

When management chooses such methods to respond to workers who have worked non stop for four months, at times in consecutive night shifts , often working 11 hours without a break, with no weekends and no days off , to increase the factory production to record level and then they are not even paid the right wage for it, one can say this management doesn’t want to engage in any dialogue, it accepts no workers organisations and recognises no worker representative. Under such circumstance, do workers have any option but to strike?

The management was responsible for this strike and it must respond to workers demands.Now that a strike has taken place instead of responding to the demands, managers have sacked groups of workers who went on strike. We demand an immediate end to the sackings and an end to the police atmosphere created in the factory.We call for the immediate, unconditional reinstatement of fellow workers sacked in recent weeks and we call on international workers organisation to support our call for the release of arrested workers.

Long live workers solidarity

A group of workers from Iran Khodro - 24 Ordibehesht 1385 ( May 2006)

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Iran Khodro is the largest vehicle manufacturer in the Middle East, producing over 110,000 units a year. It produces passenger cars, minibuses and buses, vans and trucks. It was formed in 1962 and currently employs around 30,000 workers.