Workers’ representative Mohammadali Mirzai was killed in an accident with a coal trailer during labour protests in Zarand, Kerman, after police shot tear gas into the crowd. On 16 June more than 350 workers at the Madanjoo Company in Zarand staged a protest by blocking the road, after spending three months in a state of limbo with no work.
Eyewitnesses reported that police threw tear gas into the crowd in order to disperse the workers, and as a coal trailer tried to force its way through the protesters, it ran over Mirzai, who had been temporarily blinded by the tear gas.
The workers were demanding that either the mine reopen or that they all be placed on employment insurance, which the company has been refusing to do, saying the workers were only on contract and, therefore, were not entitled to insurance