Kian Tire Fight Continues

Kian Tire workers fight to stop the transfer of the factory to its previous owner has been continuing since the last ILR report.

On August 3, workers stopped work, set tires on fire and pressed on with their demands. The fire went on throughout the day being put down by the end of the work hour. While the protests were in progress, representatives of the workers held a meeting with authorities from the city of Eslamshahr Secuity Council in which Sharafi was called in. Sharafi is the previous owner of the factory, rumors of whose return to the factory set off workers protests in the first place.

At that meeting, three points were agreed upon. It was decided that the previous owner shall provide 10 Billion tomans in a span of one month for the expenses associated with continuation of the production at the factory and payment of the past dues to the workers in the next day, allow for a three months trial ownership of the factory by Sharafi with the condition that the factory shall return to Industries Support Organization in case any of the agreed upon goals in the meeting were not met and lastly Sharafi not to appear at the factory compounds during the course of the three months trial period.

On August 5, five workers were called in by Eslamshahr security police and apprehended consequently. The workers were arrested on the grounds that a camera used by a security official to film the August 3 protests had been thrown into the fire. The five had been participating in many of the meetings with officials as part of workers representative delegations. The news of the arrests led to a fresh new protest by the workers at the governors offices which resulted in freeing the five in the evening of that day.

Kian Tier workers protests continued on September 4 with their gathering by Center for Redressing the Public’s Grievances at the Presidential Office causing heavy traffic at the adjacent streets. The action resulted in three workers representatives being called into the center to discuss the matter. In the course of the talks, a letter addressed to the Ministry of Industries was prepared to address the workers grievances. The workers protest rally was subsequently taken to that Ministry and present them with the letter from the Presidential office. The workers called off the protest at the Ministry of Industries as the Ministry offices were closed. The workers were complaining about the power lines to the factory being cut off by the Ministry of Energy and lack of necessary raw material for production at the factory to continue.

Another round of protests happened on September 8 at the Ministry of Industries where a meeting on issues related to Kian Tire was scheduled.

While the meeting was set for 7:30 a.m., the workers gathered by the Ministry around 7 a.m. and their representatives attempted to participate in the meeting. When the workers representatives were denied entry, the workers started chanting and by 11 a.m. attempted a forceful entry into the Ministry compounds. Following the protest entry, three representatives of the workers were eventually allowed inside the meeting. The workers also prevented Sharafi, the previous owner of Kian Tier, and Jalali Nazari, deputy workers relations Minister and a member of Industries Support Organization and an advocate of returning the factory back to Sharafi from exiting the building.

With workers representatives present at the meeting, it was decided to not return the factory back to Sharafi, a four member committee comprised of two from Industries Support Organization and two from existing management at the factory to run the factory until the aforementioned committee of Industries Support Organization is set up at the factory, and the committee shall be in place no later than September 27 to run the factory as before.

The agreement did not satisfy the workers who called for inclusion of two workers representatives in the committee and issuing a letter by the Industries Ministry to resume electricity connection by the Ministry of Energy to the factory which had been shut off. With workers insistence, these demands were subsequently agreed upon and the workers ended their gathering by 2 p.m.

The agreement did not receive ratification of certain members of the negotiating committee of the Industries Support Organization. The workers representatives attempts at implementation of the agreement and resumption of production at the factory also did not come to fruition leading to a general assembly of the workers in the factory cafeteria hall on September 16. With almost all of the one thousand employed workers attending the assembly discussions pursued on another protest rally at the Ministry of Industries.

While the assembly was running, a fax was received from Taghi Khanbeigi, the secretary of Industries Support Organization Committee addressed to Mirzai, the appointed new manager by the Committee on September 8. The letter affirmed the appointment of Mirzai to run the factory and resumption of the production and resolving the ongoing problems.

The workers seeing the fax as a sign of victory, worked on connecting the electric power to various units and preparing for production the next day.

Iran Labor Report