High Prices Start to Hurt

With subsidies coming to an end and a tanking economy, Iran’s middle and working class finds itself in the crosshairs. Prices go up, but salaries remain the same. In a continuing pattern of restrictions on independent civil society, union truckers are told that they cannot raise prices for their customers or they will find themselves booted out of the union. The LA Times reports:

“We were told by written notification that if we stop transporting cement at the same price our union membership cards will be nullified,” 56-year-old Bahman, who owns two cement trucks, told The Times. “That means that non-members of the truckers union can replace us and we lose our stable monthly income.”