September 12-14
More than 5,000 workers striking at the iron ore mine in Bafq ended their strike after 16 days last Thursday once all the strike leaders were freed from jail.
The Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) said all nine arrested men had been freed. The government had reportedly offered to free them earlier on bail, but the strikers continued striking in opposition to any bail demands. ILNA did not say if any bail was paid in the end.
ILNA reported that the strikers were once again promised that no shares in the firm would be offered to any private investors. It was opposition to privatizing that started the strike in May. After winning on that point and ending their strike, other issues then cropped up leading to sporadic strikes until the arrests of strike leaders prompted a massive strike and sit-in last month that drew many Bafq citizens with no connection to the mine itself. (See last week’s Iran Times, page one.)
The strike received very little media attention in Iran, where labor strife inside the country is generally ignored. For example, the Iran Daily carried not a single word last week on the Bafq strike, but it carried an unusually long story about Lufthansa pilots striking in Germany, a strike that did not impact flights to Iran.
