* Photograph: Tezcan Ekizler - AA/İzmir
Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish
A collective agreement has been reached at İZBAN (İzmir Suburban Systems), where the workers went on a strike for 29 days before it was postponed by the decree of President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
According to the agreement, workers will get a 26 percent wage rise in İZBAN, which is jointly managed by the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and the State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (TCDD).
The İZBAN has announced the agreement on its Twitter account:
"Negotiations for a collective agreement which have been going on between the İZBAN management and the union are concluded and an agreement is signed. A 26 percent wage rise, which was the last offer of the İZBAN, was agreed. Respectfully announced to the public."
High Committee of Arbitrators as a threat
Commenting on the agreement, Chair of the İzmir Branch of the Railway Workers Union of Turkey (Demiryol-İş) Hüseyin Ervüz has said:
"Unfortunately, we could not reach our objectives, this is the result we got in these conditions. At the end of 60 days, we would not have the possibility to go on a strike again. It was going to go to High Committee of Arbitrators.
"As Demiryol-İş, we concluded 48 contracts at the High Committee of Arbitrators and there was not even a 5 percent rise in any contract."
Postponement means "ban"
İZBAN workers' strike was postponed by a presidential decree, referring to the 63rd Article of the Law No. 6356 on Unions and Collective Agreement.
According to the law, a strike shall be postponed for 60 days and then finished. A mediation process takes place within the 60 days. If an agreement is not reached, the parties are obliged to abide by the decision given by the High Committee of Arbitrators. Hence a postponement of a strike practically means a ban.
What happened?The İZBAN workers went on strike in İzmir on December 10, 2018, after their demands for wage raises were not accepted. Most of the railway services in the city were canceled. In a statement that it released a day before the strike began, İZBAN, a joint company of The State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (TCDD) and İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, claimed that the workers demanded a 65 percent pay rise and did not step back from their demand. İZBAN stated that it offered a 22 percent raise, plus travel and meal allowances. After the strike began, the parties met for numerous times but an agreement was not reached. On December 27, İZBAN made a statement, saying that it increased its offer to a 26 percent rise, but canceled it after the offer was rejected by the workers. The minimum wage for an İZBAN worker would be 3,694 TRY (~680 USD), according to the statement. The İzmir Branch of the Railway Workers Union of Turkey (Demiryol-İş) released a statement on its website in response to the İZBAN. It contradicted İZBAN's statement by saying that the pay rise offered by the company was actually 16 percent, not 26. The strike was postponed by a Presidential Decree on January 8. |
(OI/EKN/VK)
