18 January, 2024After months of determined industrial action, Turkish metalworkers have achieved a significant victory during sector-level collective bargaining negotiations. Amidst the nation's economic challenges, including soaring inflation rates, and despite robust profits and record-breaking revenues within the metal sector, workers carried out warning strikes, mobilizations, and various actions.
Following months of negotiations, IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll Europe's three affiliated unions - Türk Metal, Birleşik Metal İş, and Özçelik-İş - successfully secured a substantial wage increase. The total wage rise in the first six months stands at 98 per cent. Including social benefits, this increase reaches an impressive 105.1 per cent.
General President of Türk Metal Pevrul Kavlak said:
"We kept our promise and received a raise exceeding 100 percent on the 100th anniversary of our Republic. The increasing cost of living in the face of rising inflation has caused challenges for especially wage earners. In such a period, we fought at the table for the metalworkers we represent to live a life worthy of human dignity.”
Yunus Değirmenci, General president of Özçelik-İş said:
“After a long and difficult struggle process, we succeeded in signing the MESS Group Collective Bargaining Agreement in line with the demands and expectations of our members, in a way that will make our members and their families smile and give them a breath of relief.”
General President of Birleşik Metal-İş Özkan Atar said:
“Metalworkers have achieved great gains today as a result of their hard and determined struggle for months. For months, we said, "We will win, the metal workers will win!", we said, "If the metal workers win, all workers win". The metalworkers won, the whole working class won! WE WON!"
In September 2023, the three affiliates initiated simultaneous bargaining efforts, affecting over 150,000 workers across 400 workplaces. However, in November, the negotiations reached an impasse and subsequently broke down, leading to the unions walking out, primarily due to unresolved disagreements over wage issues.
The employer's association, MESS, displayed a lack of cooperation for an extended period during the negotiations, prompting unions to take industrial action. The talks escalated into a conflict due to MESS's refusal to address the diminishing purchasing power of metalworkers amidst record-high inflation.
According to the Turkish Statistics Agency TÜİK, the consumer price increase in 2023 was 64.77 per cent. However, there is widespread public scepticism about the accuracy of this statistic. ENAGrup, a collective of independent academics, estimated the inflation rate for 2023 at a significantly higher 127.21 per cent.
On December 7, 2023, thousands of Türk Metal members demonstrated their dissatisfaction by placing black wreaths* at the MESS headquarters in Istanbul and at various regional offices. Subsequently, on January 9, Türk Metal organized a one-day strike, and on January 11, they conducted protest actions during shift changes at all workplaces covered by the MESS agreement.
Birleşik Metal İş, also took industrial action with warning strikes. This involved stopping production for one hour during three shifts, totalling six hours of work stoppages per week for 1.5 months. In addition, members of Birleşik Metal İş organised rallies in the city centres where MESS member factories are located.
The key elements of the agreement reached on 17 January 2024 are:
A pay rise that compensates metal workers for the country’s extraordinary inflation, including guarantees for the entire two-year period of the agreement
- Special wage increases for the lowest paid
- Improved overtime compensation on public holidays
- Extra additions for seniority
- Extra leaves for parents of small children and disabled workers
Acting Joint General Secretary, Isabelle Barthès, of industriAll Europe praises the strength and fighting spirit of the Turkish unions and congratulates them on their great achievements:
“Turkish metalworkers demanded nothing less than their fair share of productivity and profits so that they can meet their basic costs, maintain a decent standard of living and human dignity in the face of record inflation. With record exports and sales, companies can clearly afford it.”
IndustriALL Global Union's Assistant General Secretary, Kemal Özkan, also weighed in on the remarkable success of the Turkish metalworkers:
“What a great achievement from the Turkish metalworkers under heavy economic and social conditions. Metalworkers have joined their forces and they have won. They have shown their unity in a way that such great agreement was reached even without going on strike. Bravo!”
*Traditionally in Turkey a "black wreath" is a symbol typically used in protests or as a sign of mourning. In the context of protests, it represents grief or dissatisfaction with a particular situation, entity, or decision.