Metal workers on strike in 22 plants
NEWS CENTER (DİHA) - Up to 15,000 metal workers have gone on strike today in 22 plants around Turkey to protest poor wages in the sector and demand a better collective bargaining agreement with employers in the industry.
The metal workers in the plants in the provinces of Osmaniye, Hatay, Mersin, Konya, Kocaeli, Bursa, İzmir, Bilecik, İstanbul and Gebze have gone on strike today to protest poor wages in the sector and demand a better collective bargaining agreement with employers in the industry. The metal workers came together Gebze Organising Indistry's Cengiz Machine and hung the placard of strike. DİSK General Head Kani Beko, DİSK General Secretary Arzu Çerkezoğlu, HDP General Co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ, HDK Co-spokeperson and Istanbul MP Sebahat Tuncel, ÖDP General Co-chair Alper Taş, EMEP General President Selma Gürkan and DÖDEF, Alınteri, KESK, Genç-Sen, EHP and Halkevleri executives came to Cengiz Machine to support the workers there.
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.
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)
