LABOR: Workers Groups Warn Ministry against Takeover of the Workers' Fund Assets

In a statement issued on Saturday, the country’s largest labor organization warned the government against appropriating the real estate and other resources of the 26-million member social security insurance organization. Tehran-based journalist Behruz Qezelbash tells Radio Farda that the workers may resort to force in order to throw out labor ministry and social security ministry from the buildings owned by the fund. August 1, 2004 - In a harshly worded letter, the association of Islamic workers councils warned the newly formed ministry of social security and national welfare to stay away from the buildings, bank accounts and other resources of the social security insurance fund. More than 26 million workers and their employees pay into the fund and the workers believe that not even one cent of the fund’s resources can be appropriated by the government, Tehran-based journalist Behruz Qezelbash tells Radio Farda’s broadcaster Fereydoun Zarnegar. In its statement, the workers’ association warned that it will use force, if necessary, to evict the government from the social security organization’s building. “One concern that workers had before the formation of the new ministry of social security was that the workers’ property should not be turned into public property,” he adds. “The government should not consider that the belongings of the social security insurance organization, its real estate, its stocks in corporations, and its other resources, are public property.” The labor community continues to be concerned about this issue, he adds. “The problem is that in this country the state considers everything its own property,” he adds. “If the social security ministry takes over the building, the workers will certainly use any peaceful means at their disposal, but I predict that the country’s workers will not remain silent in face of government’s incursion on their property. They may occupy the buildings and push out the forces of the labor ministry and the ministry of social security,” he says.