A Report from Jajroud
*Note: This is a report from one of our worker contacts. He works in a car parts factory that has a contract with Saipa. The factory’s contract with Saipa says they must make and deliver a specific number of parts on time. Any delay brings fines, and this pressure finally falls on the workers’ shoulders. Outsourcing work and production, especially mixed with war conditions, affects the lives of the working class so directly and clearly that it needs no extra explanation; the real living conditions of the workers clearly show everything. Those who, under current wartime conditions and in opposition to imperialist-Zionist aggression, place the issue of class oppression in quotation marks and disregard it are, in fact, polishing the very instruments of exploitation that existed before the war, persist during the war, and will continue to exist after it.
This report was written in two parts with a pause because the internet was cut off. Therefore, some time has passed since the dates mentioned in it. Below, you can read the full text of this report.
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Jobs are really slow now. Most factories are closed. State-owned companies and government jobs are completely shut down. Some private companies are still working. We completely closed almost from the day the leader was attacked. We used to work until March 16th. Then we had a one-week holiday. From Friday, they said we are closed because of the war. They paid our wages only after we fought and argued with them. They pay the basic legal wage, 11 million Tomans a month. With food and housing allowances, it becomes 15 million Tomans. After they take out insurance and taxes, about 14 million Tomans is left. Of course, I get a bit more because I work the night shift. Right now, they haven’t paid the New Year bonus yet. They said they will pay it on the March 17th, if they don’t delay it. They paid the wage for February. They always pay the basic wage for March (which is 10 to 12 million Tomans) on March 21st. They pay the rest of it around April 4th.
In the Jajrood area where we live, most people have gone back to their hometowns because they are from other cities. They were all migrants. They all left at the beginning of the war. I didn’t go because the situation in Kermanshah is worse. They bombed and destroyed Sahneh. The Revolutionary Guards’ building they hit was right next to my relative’s house. They were lucky they were not home. All the doors and windows were blown into the house, and the house was full of shrapnel, glass, and metal. The glass had made holes all over the carpets. Glass was stuck in the doors and walls. A piece of metal from the missile, the size of two hands, was stuck in their wall. It was just like the videos from Gaza. They have started bombing street checkpoints and police stations. What kind of “help to the people” is this? They kill people “to help them”. What is the fault of the poor soldier at the checkpoint? He is also a child of these people. He is not a government official or a boss. What did the poor person whose house is next to the Revolutionary Guards’ base do? What is their sin?
Right before the war, everything started to get expensive and people became increasingly unhappy. Many jobs were temporarily closed, with no pay or less pay. Many people are worried about losing their jobs or their living conditions getting worse. People are afraid that the war and airstrikes will continue and get worse, and they are also afraid of the high prices. Especially since many people have lost their jobs.
The cost of living is much higher than the income, and the price of everything has multiplied. Chicken, meat, potatoes, eggs, and oil. Everything is very expensive. Eggs went up to 20 or 30 thousand Tomans, then came down a little bit. The situation with chicken is very bad. Right now, government-priced chicken is 280 thousand Tomans per kilo, and the free-market price is 360 to 370 thousand Tomans. Let alone the rent and other things. At the very least, rent alone is 15 to 20 million Tomans. The situation is really bad. People are looking for money now and trying to turn everything into cash. They want to collect cash because they are bombing the banks. My own Sepah Bank account was blown up. My account is up in the air. The bank card doesn’t work at all, and the mobile app doesn’t work either.
I have a coworker who is also a migrant worker and just got engaged. The poor guy makes 16 or 17 million Tomans monthly on the day shift. His fiancée is also in our company. She is a worker too. This poor guy has been borrowing money from me for two months. He didn’t even have money for dinner. It’s a good thing he doesn’t have a child. Otherwise, it would be much worse. Having a baby costs 100 million Tomans. A person’s total income for the whole year is 150 to 180 million Tomans. What can he do with these high prices? During the 12-day war, for couples where both husband and wife worked here, because the company paid wages late, the husband would quit and go work somewhere else to make money. It wasn’t working; they had no money to survive. The managers didn’t even understand that since both husband-and-wife work here, they should at least pay one of their wages on time.
The company always gave lunch to day-shift workers at 12:30 PM and dinner to night-shift workers at 11:30 PM. During the month of Ramadan, they said that for day-shift workers, lunch is cancelled, and the three 15-minute tea breaks are also cancelled. In return, they said it’s okay for them to go home at 4:00 PM or 5:00 PM. Then they said our dinner was cancelled too. We said, “You said it is because of Ramadan, but 11:30 PM is not during fasting time.” They said, “We don’t give food to the day shift, so we won’t give it to the night shift either, to treat everyone the same.”
One example of the bad things they do to us is Thursday overtime. The law says half of it is your regular work and the other half is overtime. For example, out of eight hours, four hours is overtime. This company says, “No, we have four Thursdays in a month. I will count them alternately: one full regular workday, and one full overtime day.” At the beginning of the year, they calculate it. They think, “If we start with a regular work Thursday this week, how can we make the overtime Thursdays fall on a public holiday or a closed day?” So, they make the official holiday Thursdays count as the overtime Thursdays. Or they use maintenance as an excuse to close the factory. Then, if they see a Thursday that is not a holiday, they say, “Let’s count this as a regular workday for now, until next Thursday.” We have never actually seen an overtime Thursday. I counted once; they cheated us 15 times using this trick. Sometimes, a month has four Thursdays. The first Thursday is an official holiday, but it falls on the “regular work” schedule. The second Thursday is supposed to be “overtime.” They combine the first and second Thursdays into one, and they steal the overtime money. The third Thursday becomes “regular work.” The fourth Thursday is supposed to be “overtime,” but they say, “The order is messed up. Let’s make this one regular work so the order is correct for next month.”
Our company hasn’t fired anyone yet, but because the wages are lower than other places, many people have left. In the past few months, 15 to 20 percent of the old workers have quit and gone to other jobs. I worked the day shift a few days ago. I didn’t know 80% of the workers. I asked, and they told me that this year, many people left because our pay is much less than other companies. They hired new people to replace them. They pay so little and steal so much from our wages that they don’t even need to fire anyone.
28 March 2026
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