The oil industry is Iran’s biggest state-owned company, the main source of state revenues and one of the countries biggest employers. It is no surprise then that state policies and politics and economy in general have always had a major impact on the workers of the oil industry and that in turn, oil workers have been central to important social, economic and political developments in Iran.
This paper explores how oil workers’ working and living conditions have changed in the context of major developments at a societal level, and how they have reacted and shaped these developments. Special attention is given to strategies of resistance and control in the state-labor relations in the oil industry.
These relationships are examined in three different contexts. In the period 1978-1980, high level of labor activism and organization challenged the managerial control of the state over the oil industry through strike committees, trade unions and workers’ councils.
In the second period, 1981 – 1989, the state consolidated its power, and the oil workers’ independence was heavily curtailed by a number of strategies: repression, social integration and ideological commitment. Also the destruction of parts of the oil industry, most importantly Abadan, and the dislocation of oil workers had a major impact.
In the third period, 1990 – 2008, the oil industry was rebuilt and expanded in a new context. Most importantly, the role of private and semi-private capital was increased in the oil industry through privatization and out-sourcing. Contract labor increased, the legal status of many workers changed, and the official workers’ organizations were marginalized.
