Monday, October 7, 2024
HomeStatementsStatements: Human RightsKhamenei and Iran's Corrupt Velayat-e Faqih Regime Responsible for Tabas Mine Disaster

Khamenei and Iran’s Corrupt Velayat-e Faqih Regime Responsible for Tabas Mine Disaster

NCRI

NCRI logoThe responsibility for the Tabas mine disaster lies with Khamenei and the corrupt regime of Velayat-e Faqih

The rights of workers and the laboring class can only be secured through uprisings, protests, and the overthrow of the regime, followed by the establishment of democracy and people’s sovereignty. 

The Labor Committee calls on workers’ unions to support Iranian workers and urges the International Labour Organization to blacklist the Iranian regime. 

The ruling clerics in Iran and their anti-worker, criminal policies have once again caused a major catastrophe, plunging our nation into mourning over the loss of miners. This tragedy, for which Khamenei and the corrupt regime of the Velayat-e Faqih are responsible, is compounded by the fact that, two days after the explosion, on September 24, 2023, the regime’s officials in South Khorasan brazenly announced, “All the miners trapped in the mine are considered deceased.”

The regime’s unavoidable admissions 

Simultaneously, the representative of Qaenat in the regime’s Majlis (parliament) stated, “The Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare confirmed that gas extraction from the mine should have been carried out, but it wasn’t. Two days earlier, workers reported a gas leak, but it was ignored. Government officials are the main culprits of this incident. Another reason for the Tabas disaster is the lack of regular inspections, as even the minister himself admits he wasn’t granted permission to hire an inspector” (Khawaran site and the regime’s “Chand Saniyeh” Telegram channel, September 24, 2023).

Before this, Ali Moqaddas-Zadeh, head of the regime’s Labor Council in South Khorasan, said, “We don’t have a methane gas sensor. If we had a methane gas sensor like in the Central Mine, this incident wouldn’t have happened” (“Chand Saniyeh” Telegram, September 23, 2023).

Alizadeh, head of the regime’s Industry and Mines Committee, said, “It appears that these mines, especially the one in question, did not even meet the minimum safety standards. Even basic communication wasn’t established, and if it had been, maybe the workers would have evacuated the area… We currently believe that even the bare minimum standards were not followed” (State TV News Network, September 22, 2023).

Every year, a number of miners are buried alive in Iran’s mines. “Recently, an explosion occurred in Shazand, where several workers were trapped under the rubble, and it took two weeks for the bodies to be recovered” (Entekhab site, September 22, 2023). However, even under the regime’s own Labor Law, Article 88 requires “individuals and legal entities” to adhere to proper safety and protective measures. Article 92, Note 2 mandates that the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs must “inspect and reconfirm the technical and safety conditions of the workplace” on an ongoing basis.

“Only 23 percent (1,407 mines) of the 6,025 mines nationwide had Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) units in 2021” (Regime-affiliated “Farheekhtegan” newspaper, September 23, 2023), and “the fatality rate per one million tons of extracted materials in Iran is several times higher than the global average” (Regime-affiliated “Ham-Mihan” newspaper, September 23, 2023).

The Importance of These Mines and the Regime’s Role in Them

The neglect and carelessness of regime institutions regarding the workers of this coal mine are all the more shocking when, as Ali Akbar Rahimi, the regime’s governor of South Khorasan, said, “76 percent of the country’s coal is supplied from this region, and approximately 8 to 10 large companies, including Madanjoo Company, operate in the area” (Reuters, September 22, 2023).

Iran’s mines, among the country’s most valuable resources, are essentially in the hands of foundations tied to Khamenei, the criminal Revolutionary Guards, and corrupt elites who exploit the workers in the most brutal manner.

The “Madanjoo” mine in Tabas is a subsidiary of the “Golgohar Mining and Industrial Holding,” one of the largest mining and industrial companies, which is itself a subsidiary of Bank Sepah. This bank is owned by the Bonyad-e Mostazafan (Foundation of the Oppressed), which Khamenei controls. The Bonyad-e Mostazafan is the second-largest economic institution in Iran after the National Iranian Oil Company and its key members are primarily Revolutionary Guards.

Now, consider the wages of the impoverished workers of this mine: Ali Moqaddas-Zadeh, head of the regime’s Labor Council in South Khorasan, mentioned that the Madanjoo workers earn 12 million tomans. This is despite the fact that, according to regime experts, “the poverty line stands at 30 million tomans” (Regime-affiliated “Fararu” site, September 12, 2024).

For the ruling elites, what matters most is the plunder of national resources and the exploitation of workers. In labor laws worldwide, workplace “safety” is a fundamental issue.

The past 45 years have shown that as long as this criminal, plundering regime remains in power, the situation for workers will worsen, and their livelihoods will shrink. The rights of workers and the laboring class will only be secured through uprisings, protests, the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime, and the establishment of democracy and people’s sovereignty.

The Labor Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, while offering its condolences to the brave workers of our homeland, and the families of the fallen miners, and wishing a full recovery to the injured, calls on all unions, labor organizations, and workers’ rights advocates in various countries to condemn the anti-worker policies of the ruling religious dictatorship in Iran. It also calls on the International Labour Organization to blacklist the Iranian regime.

National Council of Resistance of Iran – Labor Committee

24 September 2024