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Unions seek international support to solve Tekel impasse
The letter states that Tekel workers have been demonstrating to ask for their rights for the last two months, but to no avail. It claimed that virtually everyone was in support of the Tekel workers, who will lose their current benefits once they are employed under 4/C.
The document Kumlu submitted to the ILO was titled “4/C Application Offered to Tekel Workers Contradicts ILO Protocols” and included the following points: Workers covered by this article are neither workers nor civil servants, meaning they do not benefit from conditions regulating these two groups. Their monthly leave and days off are insufficient. These workers do not have the right to join a union or conduct talks and bargain with the government over wages and other social benefits. They suffer from sharp reductions in wages and are offered jobs that are not in accordance with their skills and experience.
Kumlu meets PM Erdoğan
Meanwhile, a long-awaited meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Türk-İş President Kumlu took place in Ankara on Thursday. The meeting was in progress at the time Today’s Zaman went to print. Observers, however, were not hopeful about an offer from the government that would satisfy the workers’ demands.
Speaking to the press after his meeting with Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin yesterday, Kumlu said Şahin had recommended that the confederation be more constructive and take bigger steps to reach a solution. “We told him that we have already been showing efforts to solve the problem at the negotiating table,” Kumlu noted.
Meanwhile, a hunger strike being staged by Tekel workers to convince the government to make concessions in its tough stance is continuing for the eighth straight day. Some workers have called on the unions to end the strike and the Union of Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverage, Food and Related Industry Workers (TekGıda-İş) has decided to hold a referendum among its members to decide on whether to end the hunger strike next week.
Despite the Tekel workers’ strike and other unions’ supportive demonstrations all across the country for the close to the last two months, the government continues to stand by its initial position, with some exceptions that led to improvements in the conditions of 4/C workers. The prime minister, on the other hand, has frequently announced that the Tekel workers’ demonstrations were without a legal basis and that the police will intervene if they still insist on continuing with the demonstrations after the end of February, the deadline by which the workers have to decide on whether to be 4/C workers or jobless.
Meanwhile, two female Tekel workers from İzmir -- Arife Güneş and Müzeyyen Ermin -- who had a surprise meeting with Prime Minister Erdoğan on Wednesday while expecting to only meet with his wife, Emine Erdoğan, organized a meeting at the headquarters of Türk-İş yesterday to share the content of their talks with the prime minister.
They said the prime minister told them that unionists were indeed delivering false information to workers about Article 4/C. The two workers also said that the prime minister had tried to persuade them to take the chance to work under 4/C and give up demonstrations “because there is no alternative solution.” Their talks were frequently interrupted by the audience as workers yelled words of protest against the prime minister and the government.
4/C workers may become union members
The 14th Chamber of the Ankara Administrative Court has decided that it may allow those working under Article 4/C of the Civil Servants Law No. 657, which deals with temporary state workers, to unionize. Ruling on a petition submitted by the Turkish Health Union (Sağlık-Sen), the court said the demands are valid and are already addressed by Article 51 of the Constitution, which states that nothing prevents workers from joining or forming a union.
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