4,000 Iranian brick workers lose jobs after plant closure

This article was last updated on May 21, 2022

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As international sanctions bite

As international sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme continue to bear down on the country’s economy, Iranian media reports suggest a job loss of around 4,000 in the small city of Pakdasht.

According to Iran’s semi-official news agency Ilna, nearly 4,000 workers in Pakdasht, southwest of the capital Tehran, lost their jobs after more than half of the city’s brick factories were forced to shut down.

Labour activist Avaz Soltani told Ilna that 35 of the 60 brick production units in Pakdasht have now closed down. “Before the subsidy reform plan, around 6,000 thousand people used to work at these furnaces,” he said. “Last year, as a result of the rise in energy costs and the closing of many of these [production] units, more than 4,000 workers became unemployed.”

Soltani said that most of the laid-off workers were from the provinces of Kurdistan and South Khorasan.

According to Ilna, the brick workers were mainly seasonal employees who normally begin their work in the middle of spring and go on until the end of the summer.

Analysts say tightening international sanctions against as well as the country’s subsidy cuts are bringing social and financial hardship to millions of ordinary Iranians across the country.

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