Workers' Forum Gathers to Call for Ban on Dismissals

On Sunday, 21 June, a Workers' Forum is being held in Altunizade, Istanbul, to "create an action line to defend and realise the right to work and to protect against unemployment."

The call to the meeting, which will start at 2 pm, reads as follows:

"We are coming together at the Workers' Forum in order to form an action line to protect our right to work against the attacks on our livelihood by capitalists who are using the global capitalist crisis as an excuse, and to prevent unemployment.

Workers are only asked to share costs, not profits

Before the crisis, the capitalists and the government did not even dream of sharing the profits of the 'growth' with the workers; for the last year, however, they keep calling on us to 'share' the costs of the crisis. 'We are all in the same boat.' But numbers tell us a different story: When, for instance, the "boat" of the İş Bank increased its profit of the first three months of 2009 by 9.2 percent compared to last year and filled its coffers with 600 million TL, employee's wages were reduced; the workers got unemployment as their share. Outside of agriculture, unemployment rose from 15 to 20 percent this year. The number of unemployed rose by 1 million 125 thousand people. Female workers were hit even harder with 22.5 percent. Instead of their parents, school-aged children are being forced to work...

The reality is much worse than the official numbers. In every family there is at least one person who has lost their work or cannot find work despite seeking employment for a long time. Even those who still work face reduced wages and longer working hours to make up for the loss of labour through the dismissal of their colleagues. The increases in payments do not make up for the losses through inflation...

These are not 'unavoidable' or 'normal' events. This cannot continue!

Work is a human right

Even if factories and work places are privately owned, work is a social right, a human right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says 'Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.'

We stand shoulder to shoulder in order to work for a wage that allows us to lead a humane and dignified life and in order to prevent unemployment. We will meet at the Workers' Forum in order to discuss our problems and to create solutions!" (EK/AG)