In a meeting that took place after Today’s Zaman went to print, Erdoğan and Kumlu planned to discuss how to end the weeks-long protests of workers laid off after the privatization of Tekel factories. The meeting was requested by Türk-İş, and Erdoğan stated on Tuesday that he had agreed to speak with them.
This comes following a meeting organized by Türk-İş with the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak-İş) and the Civil Servants’ Trade Union (Memur-Sen), where the unions agreed to strike in early February if Kumlu and the prime minister could not resolve the Tekel workers issue.
After losing their jobs at Tekel factories, workers from across the country gathered in Ankara to protest the layoffs starting on Dec. 15. The workers demand that the government transfer them to other public institutions, but the government has refused, and has offered them 11 months of temporary work under Article 4/C, which provides jobs for workers dismissed after the privatization of public institutions.
