Right before the Iranian new year, the Supreme Labor Council announced an increase of 27% to the minimum wage. According to Article 41 of the Labor Law, the increase must be proportional to the inflation rate and the household’s subsistence basket rate. The inflation rate, however, has reached 53.4%. As a result, many worker groups and organisations issued statements against this catastrophic minimum wage and called for joining protest campaigns across Iran. The following statement by a group of Haft-Tapeh workers is one such call.
To all vigilant workers throughout the country!
As you know, different groups of our colleagues have been protesting the recently announced minimum wage for 2023, which is far below the poverty line and implies in fact the gradual death and complete blockage of workers’ lives. While the poverty line is $420 per month, the Supreme (anti-) Labour Council approved a minimum monthly wage of $100. In this regard, today we have launched protests in Haft-Tapeh and call on you to join the protest campaign against the approved minimum wages. We invite all fellow workers to take initiatives and launch practical field protests. This catastrophic situation won’t change without solidarity and practical protests. Without struggling, applying pressure and workers’ power, our demands won’t be met.
To our fellow workers throughout the country!
Today, March 25th, we, as a small part of the big working-class family, ran a protest rally in Haft-Tapeh to denounce the minimum wage equivalent to a ‘death line’, not only in the forms of announcements and petitions but also as a practical act of struggle as an allied workers force. Therefore, we invite all workers and toilers to join the practical campaign against the approved minimum wage and the catastrophic situation caused by this law.
Long live solidarity and struggle
A group of Haft-Tapeh workers from different departments
March 25th 2023
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