Social Media Report Protests by Iranian Oil Workers for Higher Wages

A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo
A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo
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Social Media Report Protests by Iranian Oil Workers for Higher Wages

A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo
A woman walks down a street in Tehran, Iran December 6, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters/File Photo

Social media posts on Saturday purported to show a group of protesting oil workers in southern Iran demanding higher wages and retirement bonuses.

The reported oil workers’ protests, which Reuters could not verify, comes amid an uprising across Iran, the boldest challenge to the republic since the 1979 revolution.

The nationwide protests were triggered by the Sept. 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from Iran's Kurdish region, for wearing "inappropriate attire”.

Iran's oil ministry was not immediately available to comment.

The activist HRANA news agency said on Saturday that a group of oil workers protested outside the Pars Oil and Petrochemical Company in Asaluyeh in the southern Bushehr Province on the Gulf coast.

It said in addition to wage increases and pension bonuses, the removal of high income taxes and salary cap, improved welfare services and health conditions were among the protesters’ demands.

A combination of mass protests and strikes by oil workers and Bazaar merchants helped to sweep the clergy to power in the Iranian revolution four decades ago.



NATO Boss Held Talks with Trump in Florida, Alliance Says

FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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NATO Boss Held Talks with Trump in Florida, Alliance Says

FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference, at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 1, 2024. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met US President-elect Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, a spokesperson for the transatlantic military alliance said on Saturday.
"They discussed the range of global security issues facing the Alliance," the spokesperson, Farah Dakhlallah, said in a brief statement.
On its website, NATO said Rutte and his team also met with Congressman Mike Waltz, Trump's pick to be his national security adviser when he returns to the White House, and other members of the president-elect's national security team.
On Friday, NATO did not respond to requests for comment on Dutch media reports that Rutte - a former prime minister of the Netherlands - had flown to Florida on a Dutch government plane to meet Trump.
Rutte, who took office as NATO chief last month, was widely regarded as one of the best European leaders at forging a good working relationship with Trump during his first, 2017-21 term as US president.