GENERAL STRIKE STARTS IN TURKEY
from the Morning Star
Turkish trade unionists are set to kick off a one-day general strike today in solidarity with workers hit by Ankara’s decision to sell 12 state-owned factories to British American Tobacco.
Around two million union members employed in various sectors, including railway, mining, public services, food and beverage, chemical, textile, and metal, and also highway workers are expected to join the strike.
TCLU president Mustafa Kumlu announced on Wednesday that they will walk out from 8am to 5pm.
The 12 factories were part of the government’s Tekel tobacco and alcohol monopoly.
But in December managers told employees that they would be redeployed on temporary contracts to other parts of the public sector, with watered-down employment rights and pay cuts of up to 40 per cent.
The workers would be obliged to join civil servant’s unions which do not have the right to strike or engage in collective bargaining.
Up to 12,000 Tekel workers in the Turkish Confederation of Labour Unions (TCLU) responded by holding a sit-in at a central park in Ankara, demanding to be redeployed in secure jobs at similar rates of pay and with full workers’ rights.
Attacks by riot police forced the workers to relocate to TCLU heaquarters, while others set up a protest camp outside the offices of the governing Justice and Development Party.
So far the government has refused to budge on the core issues, instead offering severance pay or contracts with lower wages.
On Tuesday Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted that the Tekel workers protest had been hijacked by “ideological groups and extremists” who had turned it into an “anti-government campaign.”
Mr Erdogan declared that the protest was illegal and indicated that he plans to send in riot police to crush the direct action at the end of the month.
Some 200 exasperated trade unionists responded to the government’s intransigence by launching a three-day hunger strike.
The union confederations - the TCLU, the Hak Workers Union Confederation, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, the Civil Servant Unions Confederation, the Public Workers Unions Confederation and the Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees - plan to meet on Friday to forge a road map for the immediate future.
And i bet we see very litter of this in the UK press.
Comment by steelcityred — 4 February, 2010 @ 9:04 am
It seems as many as four million trade unionists have stopped work in Turkey. There has been some attacks on protesters by police, notably at Unkapani in Istanbul.
Erdogan and the AKP government often get a good left/liberal press, for being pro-Palestinian, dealing with the “deep state” etc. This is largely undeserved. Moreover, the AKP is very into privatisation, is wide open to foreign capital and is hostile to organised labour. The AKP minister of labour told a TV interviewer today that the TEKEL workers face joblessness and misfortune if they don’t give in by the end of the month.
There is reason to believe the industrial action is worrying the AKP.
Comment by Mark Victorystooge — 4 February, 2010 @ 1:25 pm
If only our meek TUC would take example and lead similar action against the present and coming attacks on our public services. To keep saying that there is no mood for it amongst British workers is a cop out. There has to be leadership, organisation and propaganda. If there was not the leadership and organisation led by Wally Hannington against unemployment in the 1930’s there would never have been built the great NUWM (opposed by the right wing in the TUC) which scared the daylights out of the ruling classes. Pressure has to be put on the TUC to fight the cuts including industrial action.
Comment by Alfie — 4 February, 2010 @ 2:30 pm
Could anyone blame them if the TEKEL workers had been captured by an “anti-government campaign” when you consider the nature of Erdogan’s regime?
Turkey is a pillar of the privatisation mania’s extension into the Middle East. Good luck to the workers concerned.
Comment by Manzil — 4 February, 2010 @ 5:21 pm
Good news that Turkish workers are fighting back. Can we have a similar story on Greek workers who today launched a massive fight back against the recently elected `Socialist’ government’s cuts or is this site too pro the neo-lib EU?
Actually the Greek workers situation demonstrates that workers will be in a far stronger position to fight back if weak new labour government were re-elected than if a Tory government came in with a mandate for slash and burn.
Comment by Workers of Europe — 5 February, 2010 @ 1:15 pm
In Turkey, they’ve been fighting back for a while. I watch a lot of TV from there, and at least once a week there is a strike somewhere in the country televised, with the strikers or their supporters often being attacked by riot cops. Industrial action needs to be big and/or prolonged there, though, before it gets noticed in the outside world. The TEKEL dispute has also been brewing for a while.
Comment by Mark Victorystooge — 5 February, 2010 @ 1:35 pm
Joe Higgins, Socialist Party MEP supports TEKL workers in European Parliament
http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2010/02/0402.html
Comment by Neil — 5 February, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
Yesterday an AKP spokesman, a government minister I think, accused “the PKK and numerous provocateurs” of backing the TEKEL strikers. This indicates that the government is worried by the continuing protest, and is trying to prepare the ground for sending in the riot cops.
Comment by Mark Victorystooge — 8 February, 2010 @ 1:53 pm
The workers are clearing up their tented encampments, which they have kept up as part of their protest for months. They are taking a break and may resume it in April, according to their spokesman.
Personally, I think it is a mistake, as it eases the pressure on the government, but it’s their call.
Comment by Mark Victorystooge — 2 March, 2010 @ 3:50 pm