As labor groups in Iran say that the poverty line has climbed to 100 million rials a month after national currency’s huge depreciation in recent weeks, strikes and protests were reported in several cities on Monday. The rial has dropped 50 percent since March to 290,000 against the US dollar, putting pressure on prices, specially foodstuffs that have risen to unprecedented levels.

Firefighters, nurses and teachers all held protest gatherings. Dozens of firefighters congregated in Isfahan, central Iran, outside the provincial governor’s office to demand the implementation of rules concerning dangerous jobs. The Iranian Labour News Agency, ILNA, reported that the protesters had asked the governor to put pressure on the city council.

Meanwhile, in Babol, the ‘Orange Blossom City’ in Mazandaran province, northern Iran, nurses at the Rouhani Hospital gathered to protest over low and unpaid wages. They told ILNA they were faced particular challenges due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

There were at least three protests by workers outside government buildings in Tehran. Retired employees of a steel mill and their families gathered outside the Cooperatives Ministry to demand unpaid pensions. According to those demonstrating, 280 families had not received payments for years.

Physical education teachers were out in force outside parliament to protest over low wages. One told ILNA: “I don’t have any other profession and in current conditions we cannot even afford food for dinner.”

Poultry farmers gathered outside the Ministry of Industry to draw attention to the low prices they receive from the government compared to their high costs – both of which they said were largely government-regulated.  

These protests came as the Workers Representatives Council announced that the poverty line had climbed to 100,000 million rials a month, or a little over $330 at the current exchange rate. Another labor news service has said that 70 percent of workers in Iran are receiving less than 30,000 million rials a month, around $100.

Just three years ago the Iranian currency was ten times stronger, but US sanctions have vastly reduced Iran’s oil exports and therefore squeezed its foreign currency income and put enormous pressure on the rial. The government’s Statistical Center of Iran put consumer price inflation in the year ending on September 21 at 26 percent. The International Monetary Fund projects 34.2 percent consumer price inflation for 2020 with a 6% contraction in Real Gross Domestic Product.