POLICE, PROTESTING WORKERS CLASHED, INJURING SEVERAL
TEHRAN 16 July (IPS) Tens of workers, protesting against law pays and a new labour bill which would give employers more powers to dismiss workers, clashed violently Tuesday with Police and islamist militant thug in Tehran and other major cities, according to eyewitnesses.
Around 20.000 workers had gathered in front of Labour and Social Affairs Ministry on calls from the Supreme Labour Islamic Council to protest both new labour bill under review in the Majles and poor working conditions and low pay, when Police charged them, after some protesters chanted slogans hostile to the Islamic Republic and its leader.
Several people on both sides were injured, the witnesses said.
"Police and the militia used tear gas, plastic bullets, clubs and chains to break the stone-hurling workers and disperse them, injuring, in the process, several protesters" one source told Iran Press Service
.Very poorly paid workers, sometimes unpaid for months by employers that belongs to wealthy clerical families have been taking to the streets frequently in recent months, demanding better salaries and working conditions.
Officially, unemployment stands at 16 percent, or 3.2 million people, but experts say the figure is much higher, as the government needs to create more than 800,000 new jobs a year for young Iranians joining the labour force, but it has not been able to create more than half of it at best.
"Capitalists -- leave the labour law alone", Ya Marg, Ya Nan" (Life, Or Bread); "Sal e Adl e Ali, in Hame Bi-Edalati" (Year of Ali -- first Shi’as imam -- and so much injustice); "Mardom ba gheyrat, Hemayat, Hemayat" (Courageous People, Support, Support); "Marg bar Estebdad" (Down with Dictatorship); (Felestin o raha kon, fekri be hal e ma kon" (Leave Palestin alone and think about us); "Daneshjoo, Moalem, Karegar, Etehad, Etehad" were among other slogans shouted by more than 20,000 workers and supporters, the Students Coordinating Committee for Democracy said.
But the official news agency IRNA said the
workers were chanting slogans in support of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, calling on him for removal of their problems".The agency did not say why the workers should have been charged with clubs and tear gas if chanting slogans in support of the leader?
"The protesters
tried to storm the compound of the Labour Ministry while chanting provocative slogans, but were forced back by the riot police", the agency reported.The present labour law makes it nearly impossible to fire workers and imposes a wide range of benefits, including mandatory bonuses and generous severance payments.
The changes allow companies to give employees temporary contracts, making it easier to dismiss them.
"This is alarming and dangerous. Workers fear for their future", the leftist newspaper "Kar va Kargar" (Labour and Labourer) quoted union leader Alireza Mahjoub as saying.
"
The workers called for job security by voicing their strong opposition to any amendment to the labour law. They claimed the law guaranteed the interests of the employers", the official news agency IRNA confirmed. ENDS POLICE WORKERS CLASHES 16702