"Iran’s regime is using threats, arrests and pay rises to silence workers", 29 Nov 2022

...Strikes have added to the turmoil. Beyond the October work stoppages, in a single week in November workers walked out of a diesel company near the capital, Tehran, and did the same at an aluminium factory in the south. Firefighters went on strike in the eastern city of Mashhad. Many shops in Tehran’s bazaar closed their doors for several days. Teachers and lorry drivers have organised their own stoppages...

But the oil-sector strikes have been short-lived. Police arrested dozens of organisers and threatened more repression. Bosses were hauled in by the authorities and told to get their workers in line. The threat of arrest and prison is not the only fear. More than half of the 205,000 workers in Iran’s petrochemical sector are on fixed-term contracts. Their jobs are precarious. They cannot easily find new ones if sacked...

Some dissidents, in Iran and abroad, suggest setting up a strike fund to pay workers who walk out. Yet even if someone were to stump up the cash, the regime would make it hard for workers to collect it...

[This article requires a subscription.]