Pensioners Protest on Sundays: Our Salaries Are Not Enough for 10 Days

Social security pensioners held protest gatherings on Sunday, June 18, in several cities including Rasht, Kermanshah, Ardabil, Ahvaz, Shushtar, Shush, and Haft Tapeh. According to ILNA news agency, their demands include 'restoration of pensions and receiving salaries above the poverty line, access to free healthcare services, improvement of welfare services, and the reinstatement of the independence of the social security organization.' The protesting pensioners stated, 'The salary we receive is not enough for ten days of the month.' Reports from channels affiliated with pensioners' organizations indicated that the demonstrators chanted slogans such as: 'The pensioner is awake - tired of threats,' 'Inflation - a scourge on the people,' 'We won't sit down until we get our rights,' 'No promises - no games - implementation of standardization,' and 'Pensioner, shout out, demand your rights.' For months, social security pensioners have been holding weekly gatherings on Sundays, known as 'Protest Sundays,' to improve their living conditions. Alongside this group, pensioners from telecommunications and the steel industry have also held protests in recent months, demanding the fulfillment of their professional demands from the government. This is occurring while government officials have not met or negotiated with the representatives of the protesting pensioners in recent months. Nevertheless, Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the government spokesman, stated on June 6 at Tehran University that 'this government has listened to and responded to numerous peaceful protests from the beginning,' adding that 'the President personally met with their representative and followed up on the issue.' Despite this, protesting pensioners have strongly criticized the authorities for their 'indifference to their demands' during their gatherings in front of social security offices in various cities. Pensioners' organizations have also reported several instances of security and judicial confrontations with pensioners. The protests of pensioners, alongside workers and other wage earners, continue amid reports from ILNA that the Research Center of the Parliament recently announced that the poverty line has increased from '19 percent to over 30 percent over the past decade.' Additionally, Mohammad Bagheri Benabi, a member of the Economic Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated on June 15 that the poverty line in Tehran is 30 million tomans. According to some Iranian media, he noted that 'given the conditions of housing, rent, livelihood, and inflation, we see that the middle class is practically moving towards marginalization in Tehran and neighboring cities, and for this reason, we may witness numerous social and political issues in the not-so-distant future.'