Metal-İş Union to go on strike with 15,000 workers
İSTANBUL (DİHA) - Up to 15,000 metal workers are expected to go on strike today around Turkey to protest poor wages in the sector and demand a better collective bargaining agreement with employers in the industry.
Workers in the metal sector are not being paid what they deserve based on their workenvironment and performance, said Birleşik Metal-İş Union head Adnan Serdaroğlu. “In Turkey, the metal sector is receiving a below-average share,” Serdaroğlu said. Workers at 22 factories in 10 cities around the country are set to walk off the job at 9 a.m. today after Birleşik Metal-İş, which is part of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), failed to reach an agreement with the Metal Industrialists’ Union (MESS) on wage increases and the length of collective bargaining periods.
'Struggle in this union is set to transform into a class struggle'
The union has accused MESS of consolidating a system of cheap labor through its policies of providing smaller wage increases to low-paid workers, who form close to 70 percent of the total number of workers in the sector, and higher raises to better-paid workers. At the same time, Metal-İş said MESS’s desire to sign a collective bargaining deal of three years instead of two would also make cheap labor more permanent. “The sector is one with a high class consciousness, but it’s also one where employers and yellow unions are very strong. As such, the struggle in this union is set to transform from a struggle for rights into a class struggle,” Serdaroğlu said.
Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) Chair Lami Özgen also lent support to Metal-İş’s call for a strike. “The policies of driving down wages for workers in the public and private sector, as well as that of sentencing people to wages that are below the poverty line, have long been the common policies of the government and employers in this country,” Özgen said.
(nt)
