City Council Member Condemns Police Attack on Bus Company Drivers

Mohsen Sarkhou, head of the labor faction of the Tehran City Council, condemned the "violent confrontation with workers who are pursuing their labor issues" on Tuesday, December 7, and apologized to them and their families. Earlier, the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran Bus Company and several other labor organizations reported that police prevented about 200 drivers from gathering and marching on Sunday, December 5, in protest against the non-payment of housing benefits for drivers and workers of the company. According to ILNA news agency, Mohsen Sarkhou expressed regret over the incident during a council session, stating: "Several workers and retirees of the bus company who gathered in front of the municipality for issues related to their housing cooperative faced violence, and some were beaten in front of their families." Hassan Saeidi, a member of the bus workers' syndicate, told Radio Farda that officers confronted drivers with batons, tasers, and punches. Reports indicated that at least 17 individuals were detained for several hours by police, and some were beaten with batons. Among those beaten were Hassan Saeidi, Naser Mohramzadeh, and Iraj Fadaei. According to the report, these three were sent to Sina Hospital for treatment after being transferred to the security police in Arg Square, Tehran. Mohsen Sarkhou stated: "It is unacceptable for workers who are requesting their rights regarding labor issues and housing cooperatives to be beaten instead of being engaged in negotiations and receiving responses to the letters from the Islamic Council of Workers of the Bus Company." He added: "As the head of the labor faction, we apologize to these individuals and their families because we were present in the council but did not notice this issue. It was our duty to prevent violent confrontations with them." Sarkhou noted that 500 members of the housing cooperative of the bus company have been unable to benefit from its provisions, and their loan amounts have increased. However, Hassan Saeidi estimated that more than 7,000 drivers and workers have not received housing benefits. According to ILNA, workers have been waiting for years for housing to be delivered, and their negotiations and correspondence have yielded no results. These workers are demanding that the Tehran municipality address their housing demands. According to the news site Meydan, in 2013, a resolution was issued by the Housing Council of the municipality regarding how workers of the bus company could benefit from non-repayable housing facilities, and the Tehran municipality allocated 75 billion tomans for this purpose, but bus company workers still cannot access these facilities. Workers have reported that the resolution regarding their housing cooperative has not been implemented, and despite registering for the housing cooperative project since 2009, they have only witnessed 40% physical progress. Mohsen Sarkhou also condemned the treatment of workers pursuing labor issues, comparing it to the whipping of dismissed workers from the Agh Dareh gold mine, and called on the Tehran municipality to respond and deal with the assailants. Confrontations with protesting workers in Iran are not new. Reports of security and judicial actions against labor activists and workers from various factories have been published previously. Typically, Iranian officials remain silent regarding these reports and news. In this context, the treatment of bus drivers has drawn severe criticism from several labor organizations in Iran. Meanwhile, ILNA reported that the march of about 500 workers from the Polyacryl Company in Isfahan, who intended to gather in front of the Isfahan governorate, was prevented. ILNA did not specify which entity or force obstructed the workers' march, stating that Polyacryl workers have not received their wages for the past six months, and the establishment of a government executive committee in this company over the past three months has not resolved their problems. Following the prevention of the march by hundreds of Polyacryl workers, the company's CEO promised to pay one month of their overdue wages from funds allocated by the government in the coming days. The Free Union of Workers of Iran also reported that a nationwide gathering of personnel and workers and their families from the National Iranian Oil Company in front of the Ministry of Oil in Tehran, scheduled for December 8, was canceled due to security pressures. This gathering was intended to demand "increased monthly payments" and "the implementation of Article 10 of the Oil Ministry's duties and powers for the evaluation of oil workers." According to the Union's website, following the approval of the Oil Ministry's duties and powers law in March 2013 by the Islamic Consultative Assembly and its notification to the Oil Minister in 2014 for implementation, the ministry has not executed Article 10, leading to dissatisfaction among the employees and workers of the National Iranian Oil Company.