Challenges of Guild Union Management in Iranian Theater

Objective
This research examines the challenges of forming a trade union in Iranian theater and if this research is not done, theater artist, unlike the previous decades, will still be unaware of their rights in art associations. They can determine their profession as a job (not as seasonal work) and defend their rights.
Research Methodology
The approach of this qualitative and documentary research is based on labor laws and trade unions and quasi-trade union experiences, and by reviewing and comparing limited laws and theories, the researcher was able to find solutions to identify the employer and the legal personality of the theater artist according to internal experiences.
Findings
The findings of this research state that the official occupation of the theater as an employee or worker is not defined according to the national employment and the social security laws, and the theater artist as a professional and freelancer is assigned by the government's cultural institution (Ministry of Guidance) to the insurance organization. Social worker is introduced to enjoy the basic insurance of social security, but no other rights and benefits have been awarded to him. Due to the lack of definition of the official job of theater according to Iran's labor law, so far no universal trade association and practical job services for theater artists have been established, and thus, theater artists do not have the support of the trade union, insurance and protection of the labor law. In Iran, based on the solutions of the world theater trade union, the most important of which is independence from the government, income generation, and the right to freedom of protest and strike, there is no theater trade union, because the labor and employment laws and the labor and employer organizations of Iran and the world in terms of function, license, and service delivery , are different from each other. That is why theater quasi-unions are formed with the purpose of union work and in the form of the cultural-artistic association, and they lack the basics of union work, which is the determination of the role of the employer and worker and the labor contract. Due to the lack of a legal mechanism governing the identity of workers and artistic employers, Iranian theater artists do not have full health and pension insurance, unemployment insurance, pension rights and job protection because their job is not registered in the labor law and they do not have an employer. According to the law approved by the Islamic Council, a worker can benefit from occupational pension and insurance services if he has a certain income, a work contract and an employer. For this reason, in the system of the social security organization, it is defined as a free profession and occupation, which is called "professionals and free occupations" in the legal definition; Like drivers and carpet weavers who pay the major part of the insurance themselves. The lack of an employer in the theater has caused the employer's contribution to the Social Security Organization not to be paid, and unemployment insurance, retirement benefits, and full labor insurance for artists are not formed.
The social security insurance for artists, though limited, is established for professional theater people, while non-professional theater people and artists who work independently and are not members of theater institutions, do not enjoy the same incomplete insurance of artists, and their number is tens of thousands; From students and graduates of theater, to whom 2000 people are added every year, to experimental amateur artists and independent professional artists without government or association affiliation.  The problem is that the same insurance for artists does not include all artists and those who are insured do not enjoy all insurance and public pension services, and in addition to these inadequacies, the stagnant record before joining a theater organization is also lost, and all this is the result of third-party management. The big theater, the lack of economic mechanism in the theater and ultimately the lack of formation of an official and independent union was due to the lack of the employer's role. In the theater of the world, theater guilds play the role of patrons, but they are not employers, but with legal means, they receive the artist's rights from the employer and support him when he is unemployed.
Therefore, the employer has the main role in the labor rights process and the trade unions have a supporting role with their independence. In Iran, there is a deficiency on both sides of this process, because the temporary employer (theatre or director) is not required to pay salaries, and there is no official and independent guild to support the artist. For this reason, the government has entered into trade union activity and supervises the artistic work by paying subsidies to artists. In fact, the government is not the employer and does not pay the employer's salary, but by paying a subsidy to a part of the artists, it has a supervisory role over all. The question is why during the past decades, why has not an employer been created for the theater so that a legal job can be formed and its guilds grow?  The answer to this question is related to the theater's income, economy and disorderly management. In a theater where the artist lives on a government subsidy and according to the statistics of the General Department of Performing Arts of the government, most of the performances are bankrupt, there is no possibility for the formation of a legal relationship between the employer and the worker and the union. It is in such conditions that pseudo-unions are formed for the social presence of artists; Institutions that have the goal of trade union work but do not find the legal and occupational possibility of trade union work based on what was said.
Discussion & Conclusion
As a result of this research, for the first time after the beginning of professional theater in Iran, the challenges of forming a trade union in Iranian theater are identified:

Failure to identify the legal roles of the employer and the worker (the person who works) in the theater;
Lack of union independence and dependence on the government;
Lack of union concentration in one institution;
The impossibility of economic work and income generation in existing trade union laws;
Disconformity of legal and service guilds with theater guilds of the world;
Incomplete medical and pension insurances for artists;
Lack of unemployment and accident insurance;
The mass birth of government guilds and quasi-art guilds, instead of an official and united and universal guild;
Lack of historical transition of guild and syndicate in theater and small and scattered guild experiences;
Lack of trade union knowledge and trade union management among artists;
The government's involvement in the formation and licensing and trade union supervision;
Lack of permission for unions to cooperate with the people and to benefit from the economic power of the people for the members of the union;
Lack of research in this field;
Failure to inform artists about trade union rights