No End in Sight for Workers' Protests

After 7 days of protest actions against the loss of employee personal rights due to privatization, Tekel workers in Ankara are calling for support. The workers gathered in front of the Turkey Worker Syndicates Confederation (Türk-İş), since they were hindered to come together in front of the building of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The International Union of Food Workers (IUF) initiated a signature campaign which will be sent to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. IUF urged Erdoğan to talk to the Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverages and Food Subsidiary Workers Union of Turkey (Tek Gıda-İş) immediately for the workers employee personal rights.

Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK) general secretary Tayfun Görgün declared, "We will be side by side with the Tekel workers until they will be granted their rights". DİSK president Süleyman Çelebi said, "We are ready for a general strike". Unions belonging to Türk-İş organized a protest march in Istanbul last Saturday (19 December).

Worker still in hospital after police violence

The police used excessive force in the intervention against the demonstrations last week. Worker Ali Can Akyel was injured and might remain paralyzed as a result. The worker had come from Muş for the protests and is still undergoing treatment in hospital. Selcuk Kozağaçlı from the Contemporary Lawyers Association said that they are going to apply to court for Akyel.

At the same event, the police made use of tear gas against the demonstrators. Republican People's Party (CHP) MP Çetin Soysal indicated that he is going put the issue forward to the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission. Soysal was exposed to tear gas himself and said that the identity of the police officer who attacked him could be confirmed but is kept confidential. The police officer will be called before the commission as well, as Soysal declared.

Accomodation problematic

Tek Gıda-İş President Mustafa Türkel emphasized that the organization is determined with the protest actions and that housing is the most pressing problem of the workers. Since the guesthouses do not provide enough accommodation, the Ahmet Taner Kışlalı Hall is also used for accommodating the participants of the protest actions. Despite the biting cold, the workers continue their demonstrations. Members of the Ankara Medical Chamber, the Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES) and the Medical Students Commissions allocated a sick bay to the workers.

Privatization

The union warns that 12,000 Tekel workers are going to lose their jobs in February 2010 due to privatization. The workers do not want their status to be converted into 4-C staff, so-called "temporary workers", which means loss of job security and rights to compensation for example. Neither do they want to be transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture for the protection of their employee personal rights.

The privatization process in Tekel was initiated in 2001. Later on, the sections of alcoholic beverages and cigarettes were demerged. The privatization process for alcoholic beverages was completed in 2008 and sold to Mey Beverages.

8 out of 17 factories for alcoholic beverages were closed down in the course of the privatization. 1,700 workers out of a total of 3,631 were transferred to Mey, the other ones left the company. In 2009, the number of workers decreased to 323 people, less than 10 percent of the original number of staff.

The cigarette section was bought by British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2008. There were 477,000 tobacco manufacturers in 2001. By 2008, the number had decrease by 3 fifth to 194,000. Currently, the sections of tobacco leaves and salt processing are being privatized. Tekel employs 12,000 workers now, compared to 31,000 employees in 2001. (EÜ/VK)