Government Spokesperson Mohajerani's Response to Labor Protests: Our Budget Capacity is Limited

Fatemeh Mohajerani, spokesperson for the government of Masoud Bezhakian, on Wednesday, October 25, addressed the demands of retirees in Iran, acknowledging that "many of the retirees' protests are legitimate and should be taken into account," but stated, "Our budget capacity is limited, and we must prioritize payments." This government official expressed, "We are grateful to retirees, nurses, teachers, and wheat farmers," but emphasized that "the burden must be placed proportionately on the government." Mohajerani's comments come in the wake of recent protests and strikes across various regions in Iran. Since the beginning of the fourteenth government, protests by workers, retirees, nurses, and other wage earners have shown an increasing trend alongside rising prices and worsening living conditions. This is while ILNA news agency recently quoted Faramarz Tofighi, a labor activist and former head of the wage committee of the Islamic Labor Councils, stating that the monthly livelihood basket is approximately 37 million tomans. In contrast, the minimum monthly wage for workers subject to labor law, married with children, is about 11 million tomans. Sadegh Kargar, a labor activist residing in Norway, questioned in an interview with VOA which priorities take precedence over retirees' livelihoods, stating that the government spokesperson poured cold water on all those whose common demand is an increase in wages and effectively rejected them. He added, "The rejection of wage increases for the hardworking wage earners of the country is given by the government spokesperson while the insignificance of wages and the deep gap that has arisen between wages and the increasing costs of living has drained people's patience, which we observe reflected in the daily protests and strikes of workers." Kargar noted that the government's priorities are the exorbitant costs of the repressive apparatus, costly and disastrous interventions in various countries, military expenditures, and patronage costs. He further stated, "However, the spokesperson was embarrassed to say that if improving the livelihoods and purchasing power of the majority of the impoverished population of the country are not among the government's priorities, what priorities take precedence over these?" This labor activist pointed out that "for the people, the government's priorities are by no means unknown," stating, "The government's priorities are the exorbitant costs of the repressive apparatus, costly and disastrous interventions in various countries, military expenditures, and patronage costs." He added, "A significant portion of these costs has also been covered by cutting wages and intensifying the exploitation of labor, which has never been a priority for the regime." Kargar emphasized that "until now, no official government representative has stated as clearly as the spokesperson for Bezhakian did that the lives, livelihoods, and welfare of the people are not a priority for our government." He added that these statements once again revealed the true nature of the 'unity' government to those who had illusions about it and clarified the situation for those who claimed that workers could achieve their rights by participating in elections and voting for Bezhakian. He considered the "most important lesson" for workers and wage earners to be that "only by relying on organized power and united allies of all wage-earning groups and cooperating with justice-seeking and freedom-seeking movements can they not only fight for their rights but also for removing the main cause of their rights deprivation." Protests by hospital service workers in front of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, protests by employees of the Pars Oil and Gas Company in Kangan region over unaddressed demands, protests by employees of Fajr Jam Gas Refinery over unaddressed demands, citizens with disabilities protesting their living conditions in several provinces, the nationwide teachers' organization condemning the continued repression of teachers' union activists under Bezhakian's government, strikes by employees of several South Pars gas refineries in the eleventh week of protest Tuesdays, protests by telecommunications retirees in several provinces, protests by oil industry workers on Qeshm Island, disability pensions being less than one million tomans, and the Secretary-General of the Nurses' House stating that the Ministry of Health is ignoring the real rights of nurses.