Turkey: General strike for Tekel workers

As a result of a joint decision taken by six union confederations in Turkey, millions of workers stopped work February 4 in support of workers from the closed-down Tekel leaf tobacco factory, a MRZine report that day said.

The reason for this large-scale action is the government's insistence on employing the workers of the recently closed-down Tekel leaf tobacco factory as "temporary personnel".

Public Workers Unions Confederation of Turkey (KAMU-SEN) general director Akyildiz said on February 3 that the general strike is a serious warning to the government. "This system means lack of security, lack of severance pay, lack of unionisation, and poorly paid workers who can be laid off at any time. Even for civil servants security is being eliminated.

"Finally, workers have started to wake up."

MRZine said: "The general strike gushes like a flood of solidarity through the whole country, protest actions are being organised all over Turkey."

From GLW issue 825