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5 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 47/2000
A strike that hit most of Turkey's tyre industry from 28 April onwards has been "postponed" by government decree.
Under a frequently abused legal pretext, the Turkish cabinet claimed that the tyre strike was a threat to national security.
It then invoked Article 33 of Turkey's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes And Lock-Outs. This allows the government to suspend any strike or lock-out for sixty days if it is deemed to endanger "public health or national security".
To apply this law to a tyre strike is obviously absurd. The move will certainly damage the Turkish government's reputation at a time when it is trying to prove its democratic credentials in a bid to join the European Union.
Moreover, "postponement" of a strike under this legislation usually amounts in practice to an indefinite ban, because Article 34 of the same law empowers the labour ministry to impose arbitration at the end of the sixty days, unless the parties have either come to an agreement or voluntarily sought arbitration.
Turkey's official arbitrators rarely decide in a union's favour.
The decree "postpones" strike action at the three main multinationals affected by the dispute - Pirelli, Goodyear and Bridgestone. It was signed on 5 May by President Süleyman Demirel, Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit and the entire Turkish cabinet.
The Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is had been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide.
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies proposed to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time.
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power.
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are affected by the strike ban.
Under a frequently abused legal pretext, the Turkish cabinet claimed that the tyre strike was a threat to national security.
It then invoked Article 33 of Turkey's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes And Lock-Outs. This allows the government to suspend any strike or lock-out for sixty days if it is deemed to endanger "public health or national security".
To apply this law to a tyre strike is obviously absurd. The move will certainly damage the Turkish government's reputation at a time when it is trying to prove its democratic credentials in a bid to join the European Union.
Moreover, "postponement" of a strike under this legislation usually amounts in practice to an indefinite ban, because Article 34 of the same law empowers the labour ministry to impose arbitration at the end of the sixty days, unless the parties have either come to an agreement or voluntarily sought arbitration.
Turkey's official arbitrators rarely decide in a union's favour.
The decree "postpones" strike action at the three main multinationals affected by the dispute - Pirelli, Goodyear and Bridgestone. It was signed on 5 May by President Süleyman Demirel, Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit and the entire Turkish cabinet.
The Turkish rubber workers' union Lastik-Is had been negotiating with the tyre companies since last November for a new agreement covering this year and 2001. At the global level, the union is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), which organises tyre and rubber workers worldwide.
The companies' final offer to Lastik-Is was a 22 percent pay increase for the first half of this year, followed by a further 6 percent in the second half, plus a small lump sum. For the year 2001, the companies proposed to make an additional payment dependent on the prevailing exchange rate between the US dollar and the Turkish lira at the time.
This is a wholly inadequate offer, the union points out, in view of the steep rise in the cost of living. Turkey's inflation rate last year was 68.8 percent. The tyre workers would need a pay rise of the same order simply in order to restore their purchasing power.
Altogether, some 5,000 workers are affected by the strike ban.