Iranian Autoworkers on Strike?!

Via Andrew Sullivan's "Live-Tweeting the Revolution" updates, I see the following tweet:

iran Khodro labors went on strike today

Khodro is Iran's leading car company and the largest producer of automobiles in the Middle East. The company has also seen a strong recent history of labor militancy and repression. In 2005 Parviz Salarvand, a worker and organizer at one of Khodro's plants, was detained and beaten after a series of protests and only released after international pressure, principally from groups such as the ITUC. In 2006 Khodro workers again took action after a number of their fellow workers were fired and turned over to security forces. June and July of last year also witnessed a major strike by thousands of Khodro workers demanding unpaid wages, as well as the shifting of contracted workers to become full-time employees of the company (that sounds familiar). That strike ended sucessfully for the workers who won their immediate demands. Khodro workers have also made their long-term demands clear, as in this letter to the International Labor Organization, in which they asked the ILO to work to help ensure that Iran:

• observe workers rights,
• not prevent the formation of free workers' organisations,
• not arrest and jail workers for the offence of going on strikes and forming workers' organisations,
• respect the conventions of the International Labour Organisation.

So while we can't be positive the strike is happening or the extent, it would not be a surprise.