The collective bargaining negotiations, which started on August 1 and concern approximately 4 million public workers and 2.5 million retired public workers, continue. The collective bargaining demands of the Islamist regime union Memur-Sen, which says that the lowest salary will rise to 29,700 liras in January 2024, are as follows: for 2024, a 35% increase in the first 3 months, 10% in the second 3 months, 15% in the third 3 months, 10% in the fourth 3 months, including prosperity share in quarterly periods; for 2025, a 25% increase in the first 6 months and 15% in the second 6 months. The fascist regime union Kamu-Sen demanded a 40% increase in the first 6 months of 2024, 30% in the second 6 months and a 10% welfare share on top of the increase given from January. KESK, on the other hand, demanded that the lowest public worker salary be raised to 47,500 liras for big cities and 45,000 liras for other cities. KESK demands that wages be determined based on the poverty line, not the figures of the Turkish Statistical Institute. Accordingly, they demand that the lowest civil servant salary be raised above the poverty line for a family of four, spouse allowance to 3,310 liras, child allowance to 2,220 liras per child, and rent allowance of 7,500 liras in metropolitan cities as well as 5,000 liras in other cities for public laborers who do not own a house.

On August 14, the government announced its first offer. It proposed a 14% raise for the first 6 months of 2024, 9% for the second 6 months, 6% for the first 6 months of 2025 and 5% for the last half of the year. In response, KESK announced that it would go on strike on August 16th. KESK’s general strike comes at a time when class struggles are on the rise in Turkey. Therefore, it would be appropriate to mention the biggest strikes of the recent period.

On July 11th, a one-day national municipal warning strike organized by DISK-affiliated General Labor took place in Turkey. Striking municipal workers in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Mersin, Eskişehir, Aydın, Dersim, Artvin, Kırşehir and possibly other cities took action. The demands are for higher wages and an end to discrimination against workers in municipal companies. In Izmir Metropolitan Municipality alone, there are 18,000 Genel İş members working in two separate municipal companies.

DEDAŞ (Dicle Electricity Distribution Corporation) workers in Northern Kurdistan went on strike on July 21. Workers demonstrated in six provinces (Diyarbakır, Urfa, Mardin, Batman, Siirt and Şırnak) and 70 districts. The largest demonstration took place in the center of Diyarbakır, where about a thousand workers gathered. Workers demanded unionization and better living and working conditions. More than 200 workers were dismissed. Although in previous years Tes-İş (Türk-İş) and Enerji-Sen (DİSK) had members among the workers, no union is currently recognized at DEDAŞ. While Tes-İş has remained silent on the struggle, Enerji-Sen tweeted about the demands and struggles of DEDAŞ workers on July 18 and 19 and held meetings with workers. DEDAŞ pressured the dismissed workers to resign from Enerji Sen and join the regime union Hak İş.

In the last days of July, 18,000 workers of İZELMAN and İZENERJİ companies staged a half-day strike against the Izmir Municipality, followed by a similar strike by other municipality workers (bus drivers, firefighters, kindergarten teachers, etc.) demanding the payment of past rights promised in the contract but not paid by the municipality. The workers, all affiliated to Genel-İş (DİSK), later staged a one-day strike. Among the slogans they chanted was “Izmir metro workers are not alone”, referring to the ongoing strike in the Izmir metro. The 625 Izmir metro workers, members of Demiryol İş (Türk-İş), went on strike indefinitely. The Izmir metro strike was to result in partial gains a few days later.
Workers in the municipalities of Bornova, Buca and Bayraklı in Izmir demanded an additional protocol for their wages, which have been eroded by inflation. In Ankara, workers from Çankaya, Mamak, Etimesgut and Yenimahalle municipalities belonging to different political parties also joined the municipal struggles with demonstrations. In Çankaya Municipality, union officials attacked workers who refused to accept the protocol signed by Genel-İş. In Istanbul, hundreds of workers from the ruling party-controlled Hizmet-İş (Hak İş) in 23 local municipalities organized a demonstration calling for a strike. The heads of Hizmet-İş were forced to criticize the government in their speeches, a rare occurrence in Turkey.

Public sector health workers organized on a platform led by the Health and Social Service Workers’ Union (KESK) decided to go on strike on August 1 and 2. Health workers organized in SES and many other health workers’ unions went on strike in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Muğla, Eskişehir, Diyarbakır, Urfa, Batman and Dersim, mainly in Western metropolitan areas and northern Kurdistan.

Workers in the Gaziantep Başpınar Organized Industrial Zone (OSB) began a strike over low pay. Şireci textile workers went on strike on August 8, demanding a 40% raise against a proposed 34% raise. Seeing that the struggle was spreading, the bosses dismissed 2,000 workers with a text message. The workers then marched towards the city center and were stopped by the police force. The president of the combative textile union BİRTEK-SEN, which is not a member of any confederation, was detained on the complaint of the Şireci boss. The strike resulted in partial but important gains in terms of workers’ material demands. They were also promised that no worker would be fired and that the dismissed workers would be reinstated. The speeches of one of the union representatives who came for the talks praising the boss also drew angry reactions.

What needs to be done to strengthen the struggle under these conditions are the following:

We are confronted by a bourgeoisie that can act as a class in the global sense, using all kinds of legal privileges to usurp our rights, relying on its own capitalist State and its apparatus of violence. We, on the other hand, are unable to act and think as a class with our trade union structures that have become the bosses’ puppets or have been set up by them to control us. The two most fundamental elements that will enable the working class to assume a class identity are the party and the trade union front. Since its foundation, the ICP has been carrying the torch of knowledge that sheds light on the struggle for rights of the working class and the class struggle that will eventually escalate; as a part of the class, it connects the working class globally with the trade union fronts wherever it is present. The organic unity of the class is the only way to world revolution! As time is running out and life is getting heavier and heavier on the shoulders of workers, we are after permanent gains, not gains that melt away in two days!

The way to win is through a trade union front from below that will unite the struggles of workers in both the public and private sectors!