Collective bargaining cannot begin at Cumhuriyet newspaper

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While the collective bargaining was expected to take place between the Cumhuriyet newspaper and the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) yesterday (July 29), the TGS has announced that the newspaper refused to start the negotiations for the new collective labor agreement.

The announcement of the union has come shortly after Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Aykut Küçükkaya resigned, announcing that "Cumhuriyet Foundation Chair Alev Coşkun pressured him into forcing the editorial staff to resign from the union" ahead of the collective bargaining.

Posting the minutes taken at the meeting expected to be held yesterday, the TGS has announced that a meeting was held between the TGS and the employer, but no dates could be set for a meeting.

Making a brief statement on its Twitter account by attaching the minutes, the union has said, "The appeal of the Cumhuriyet administration against the authorization of the TGS was rejected by the Court of Cassation 1.5 years later and the parties met as required by the legal procedure; however, the employer declared that it would not start the negotiations."

In the minutes posted by the TGS on Twitter, it was recalled that after the employer's appeal was rejected by the court and its authorization was upheld, the union was granted a "definite authorization certificate" by the Ministry of Labor as per the Article 33 of the Law no. 6356.

The union has also noted that as per the Article 47 of the same law, the two parties, the union and the employer, came together to set the place, day and hour of the first meeting to be held between the parties.

According to the TGS, "as the employer put forward the argument that it filed a lawsuit against the definite authorization certificate of the union, no place, day or hour can be set for the first meeting."

In response to this, the union has "taken down minutes as per the Article 47 of the Law no. 6356 in order for a place, day and hour to be set for collective bargaining by the relevant authority."

What happened?

Ahead of the negotiations for the collective labor agreement between the Cumhuriyet newspaper and the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS), Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Aykut Küçükkaya resigned on July 29.

Küçükkaya has announced that Cumhuriyet Foundation Chair Alev Coşkun pressured him into forcing the editors to resign from the TGS.

According to Aykut Küçükkaya, "the issue came to the point of 'Either your colleagues will resign or you will step down as the editor-in-chief'." The journalist has indicated that he has submitted his letter of resignation to the Cumhuriyet Foundation for this reason.

Afterwards, Cumhuriyet newspaper released a statement about the resignation of Küçükkaya and the union activities at the daily.

The statement said, "The Collective Bargaining initiated by the TGS took place at Cumhuriyet newspaper today at 11 am. The legal process will continue. The administration of Cumhuriyet is not against union activities. The union has been organized at Cumhuriyet for many years." (HA/SD)