Workers at the beleaguered Iran National Steel Industry Group (INSIG) in the city of Ahvaz, southwest Iran, marched for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, November 14, to protest against the management for disregarding their "rightful" demands.
For years the company has suffered from mismanagement and lack of capital, which have rendered many productions lines idle.
INSIG workers are demanding production to be restored, injection of raw material for production and disclosing the identity of individuals who are responsible for their factory’s failure.
Workers at the manufacturing plant have also gone on strike numerous times in recent months to demand overdue wages. In June, many workers were rounded up by security forces and freed only when other workers launched protests.
INSIG, based on a steel mill founded in 1963 during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign, was privatized in 2010 in a highly mysterious manner and sold to a notorious Iranian tycoon, Mah Afarid Khosravi, aka Amir Mansour Arya, described at the time as the richest man in the country with more than $1 billion net worth.
In 2014, INSIG was taken over by the Islamic Republic’s Judiciary after Khosravi was executed for financial fraud.
The state-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), INSIG has nearly 4,000 employees who have not been paid for months.
