Workers of İstanbul’s Maltepe Municipality go on strike

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The workers of main opposition CHP's Maltepe Municipality in İstanbul have gone on strike as the collective bargaining for a labor contract covering 1,588 municipal workers has remained inconclusive.

Workers from the Public Services Employees Union of Turkey (Genel-İş) İstanbul Anatolian Side No. 2 Branch, organized within the municipality, put a sign of strike on the Maltepe Municipality building at night.

Gathering in the municipality's Cleaning Services Construction Site in Gülsuyu Neighborhood, workers chanted slogans and halted work by bringing several garbage trucks and excavators back to the site.

'What they offer is a wage of poverty'

While the workers say that the municipality offered them a pay rise of 7 percent, Mayor Ali Kılıç argues that they offered a 47-percent pay rise.

Sharing the final offer of the municipality with the workers in front of the municipality, union branch chair Yenigün Özen has noted that the poverty line is 8,560 lira and the starvation line is 3,267 lira in Turkey:

"As we have been saying from the beginning, we want this to be finalized in a reconciliation at the table. We want the income loss of our friends to be eliminated without disturbing the peace at work.

"We patiently waited to this day. However, at the current stage, the municipal administration is determined to give nothing. As was the case in the past, they want to coax us to a wage of poverty. We will won't be.

"While the poverty line is 8,560 lira and the starvation line is 3,267 lira, the municipality wants to increase the 14.85-lira food allowance by 2.15 lira and increase the 8.50-lira transport allowance by 1.50 lira. The base pay was 123 lira; they offered 125 lira. They offered a pay rise of 11 lira on an equal basis. The net pay rise that we will get is 215 lira under these circumstances.

"Even a child would not accept it as pocket money. At a time when even a 5-liter sunflower oil costs 80 lira, offering this amount means saying 'Go on strike'. And we are going on strike, we will make the best of it."

What does the mayor say?

While workers are calling on the municipality to meet their demands, Maltepe Mayor Ali Kılıç has released a written statement. 

Reminding the public that collective bargaining has been going on for 6 months, Kılıç has said that they have reached an agreement on all social and administrative rights. Referring to the municipality's offer, Kılıç has said that they offered a pay rise of around 47 percent, which means that the lowest wage of a municipal worker will rise from 2,800 lira to net 4,118 lira without premiums. He has noted that this offer has been rejected by the union.

What do workers demand?

As for workers, they demand that their gross daily wage be increased to 180 lira, the gross food allowance to 40 lira and the transport allowance be increased from 130 lira to 275 lira.

Moreover, they want 112-day premium and 400 and 300 lira respectively for two religious festivals, the Sacrifice and Sugar Feast. (HA/SD)