Hardworking miners in Iran
Reporter: The province of Kerman in
central Iran has many mines, as if the treasures of the ancient gods are hidden
in the heart of this province. Treasures that belong to all the people. For all
those who go deep down and extract these riches to help the wheels of Iran’s
begin rolling. The economy gets up and going, but none of these hardworking
people receive any share of these riches. The result of their hard work is
always plundered by the ruling mullahs. Their share is just the black faces
miners are famous for. I knew Kerman had the first word in Iran’s mining
industry because I was aware of the official numbers that 15,732 of the 84,922
miners in Iran are from Kerman Province. This is around 19%.
I went to see
one of these mines. Now I am at the gates of a mine, having a talk with one of
the miners who appears to have been working here for some time now. He is in
line to sign another contract with the company. I asked him: What’s your name?
How many years have you worked here? Tell me about yourself and your experience
in the mine.
Miner: My name is Mohsen and I am
34. I am married with two sons. For two years I was a construction worker, and
then I enlisted into military service because they wouldn’t provide me
insurance otherwise. I received my bachelor’s degree in theology from Kerman’s
Payam-e Nour University.
Reporter: Mohsen, with such a degree,
what are you doing working in a mine?
Miner: There is no work out there. I
will do anything I can. You know about the unemployment problem. There are many
others like me. I am also a driver. Of course, the owner of this mine resorts
to this excuse that they haven’t been able to sell anything for 4 months, and
they fired us and we are now unemployed. Of course, we didn’t believe they
hadn’t sold anything! So we started a strike and began protesting. However,
since the mine owner collaborates with the police and intelligence services, he
is easily able to fire us off.
Reporter: Mohsen, don’t you have
unemployment insurance?
Miner: No! They can easily deny
insurance for the workers because there are many people looking for work here.
The workers have no one to protect their rights. Therefore, they are forced to
give in to their conditions. For some time I was working in Kerman’s Keromiyat
mine located near the city of Kahnuj. It was the same there.
Reporter: Isn’t insurance part of the
regulations and laws of employment?
Miner: Employment laws?! There are
no laws here! We went and protested, asking doesn’t the law provide insurance
for us miners? They said this is our law. Do you want to work or not, if you
don’t, good-bye. They don’t provide any insurance under the pretext of
decreasing costs. And the Labor Ministry, they are in on this whole scam.
Reporter: What did you do after being fired from the mine?
Miner: First they didn’t give usour paychecks and pensions for
three months. What am I to do with a wife, two children, a mortgage, loans,
water and electricity bills, and etc.? It’s getting worse every day and
everything is becoming more expensive. They neither give us our paychecks, nor
do they give us the money they owe us. They also don’t allow me to come back to
work, leaving us not knowing what to do. I can’t keep on paying the bus to come
here every day. In this regime they easily deprive workers of their rights. We
have to be united and stand up for our rights.
Reporter: Mohsen had a tear in the corner of his eye and said, “At
least you be the voice of us workers.”
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