Strike at Iran Khodro car plant in Tehran: "Going on strike is the only way to act"

The announcement that the bonus for a year of record-breaking production was going to be lower than last year's had an explosive effect on the workers of Iran Khodro. At 4pm on Wednesday 4 March they began protesting against this management decision.

The Iran Khodro workers, who were already dissatisfied with next year's wage levels announced by the Labour Ministry, ran out of patience after hearing the news about the bonuses and strongly resisted this decision. This protest, which continued as a go-slow until the third shift came on, spread to the 'shuttle hall' when this shift come on. Since this is the biggest hall in the plant the protest by its workers brought the production line to a standstill. The strike began at this point.

This action by the 'shuttle hall' workers came to a head, and when the workers of the third shift left the hall and asked the number one assembly hall to join them, the workers of this hall also joined the strike. Once the workers of the paint hall had joined this wave, there was unity among the workers of all the halls and the strike became widespread. In this way the production line in most halls came to a halt and, with the slogan "Going on strike is the only way to act", the strike took over the whole plant.

At this point the factory's security force became involved and the management made some promises to the workers. But the workers did not pay any attention to them and did not believe their promises; they demanded to see Mr Manteghi. This situation continued until 9pm when Dehnadi, Manteghi's deputy, entered the halls.

Dehnadi, while facing the workers, promised them that this year's bonus will not be less than last year's and asked the workers to calm the situation. With this promise the workers gradually returned to work.

Received from Workers' Action Committee (Iran)
Translated by: Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network