KESK, the Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions, was on the streets in many cities of Turkey to voice the basic demands of public workers for pay raises against brutal inflation
KESK, the Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions, was on the streets in many cities demanding additional price hikes. Public workers gathered before the Şişli Cevahir Shopping Mall in Istanbul and organized a press conference.
Regarding inflation, the official statistics department TURKSTAT’s unconvincing inflation data, the increasingly diminishing payments and social benefits, KESK said, “The agenda of politics is locked in the elections to be held on May 14. As public workers, pensioners, workers, and millions who struggle for a living only with their labor, our main agenda continues to be the problem of livelihood.”
Reacting to the ‘good news’ that interviews in the hiring process would be abolished during the election process for the public sector workers KESK reported, “We have a full stomach for these promises. We have had enough of the promises of those who remember us only at election times and try to turn our problems into election investments.”
The Turkish government used interviews in the hiring process to eliminate anybody who did not actively support the government or did not have a close friend or relative in the government. A test system is in effect for the open positions, . However, many candidates who won the top points in the tests were eliminated in the interviews because they were not in the ruling AKP party.
The statement continued:
Today, we are addressing not only the current government but also all parties and alliances that are candidates for power. We are public workers and pensioners who struggle for survival with the sweat of this country. We are the employees of this country, the ones who produce values. On the eve of the election, someone is suggesting that we change our taste buds and eating habits as a solution to exorbitant meat prices. We know very well what we need to change. It is up to us to change this picture of misery and poverty that has descended upon the country.
KESK’s demands are as follows:
Police barrier in Ankara
Police prevented public workers who wanted to gather on Sakarya Street with the call of Ankara KESK Branches Platform. The police blockaded Sakarya Street, a popular, central street in the capital, and prevented the rally. Police used sexist insults against a public worker who objected to the arbitrary attitude and disrespectful address.
Public sector workers protested the police barrier in front of Eğitim Sen, the union of education workers, on Mithatpaşa Street.
MB Sendika.org News