The energy crisis and power outages have once again targeted industrial workers.
The upcoming shutdown of Iran Khodro is only one example of a broader wave of closures that, without wage or benefit compensation, put the lives of thousands of working families at risk.

In these shutdowns, what is ignored is the workers’ basic right to full wages, benefits, and job security. Workers who have no role in the energy crisis or in failed management are forced to carry the entire burden of these decisions.

Employers, exploiting the absence of independent unions, impose closures without paying full wages and benefits. The reality is that a large portion of workers, because of temporary contracts—or no contracts at all—are denied even their most basic legal rights.

Similar shutdowns in the steel, cement, and petrochemical industries over recent months reveal a disturbing pattern:
the energy crisis has turned into a tool of pressure against the workforce.

Power outages may be temporary,
but the silencing of workers’ voices, if it continues, will leave no path but explosion.

Any forced closure must come with full wage and benefit payments.
A shutdown without compensation is nothing less than hidden exploitation.

The energy crisis must not become an excuse for tightening pressure on workers.

Editorial Board of Pezhvak-e Kar Iran (Echo of Iran’s Labor)