9 confederations to stop work: No passage to the offer

Labour Service

After presenting its disgraceful first offer in the 8th Term Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations, which concern at least 10 million citizens, the government mocked public employees with its second offer. Representing the government as employer, Labour and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan added only a 1,000 lira increase to the base salary on top of a 10%+6% raise for 2026. Thus, the government’s second offer to 6 million civil servants amounted to a 10% raise in the first half of 2026, 6% in the second half, a 1,000 lira rise in base salary, and a 4% raise for each half of 2027. With only 4 days left until the end of negotiations, confederations poured in harsh reactions to this second poverty-level offer.

After meeting with Minister Işıkhan at 16:30, the heads of Memur-Sen, Türkiye Kamu Sen, and Birleşik Kamu İş made statements.

Memur-Sen Chair Ali Yalçın said, “This offer is not negotiable. This points us to the streets. Only 1,000 TL was added to the base salary. The address is right but the amount is completely wrong. This offer cannot meet expectations, I say it very clearly. There are four days ahead. The process is ongoing. We want it to evolve positively. A new offer must be announced immediately. Such an offer is unacceptable.”

Recalling that they had already declared they would walk to Ankara if no satisfactory offer came, Yalçın said, “The decision now lies with our unions.” He announced they would begin setting up resistance tents tomorrow and, on Monday 18 August, stop work nationwide and march to the capital with all their members.

WE ARE NOT PALACE SERVANTS

The Confederation Union, formed by 7 confederations under the leadership of the Confederation of Public Employees’ Trade Unions (KESK) to fight together in the 8th Term Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations, protested the government’s second offer in front of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

Their joint statement read: “The situation is clear. The government has offered 4 million public employees, 2.5 million retirees, and a massive population of 25 million people, including families, only poverty, misery, and insecurity. What needs to be done against this offer is not a negotiation over a few points of wage increase, but struggle. For years, this country’s public employees were treated as ‘palace servants.’ They were told ‘you cannot form unions, it is banned.’ Our union doors were sealed. But as public employees who said rights come before laws and bans, we broke those seals. We shouted that we are workers, not palace servants.

Now they deny us our strike rights recognised in ILO conventions and other international treaties that our country has been party to for years. They trample the Constitution that states these treaties stand above domestic law.

As long as we do not come together, our rights will remain between the lips of those who still see us as palace servants in Turkey of 2025. The only way out of this dark picture is for us, the real owners of the mandate, to unite around our common problems and raise a collective struggle with the principle ‘Rights are not granted, they are won by struggle.’ The only way out of this dark picture is to stand together, despite our differences, against those who say ‘We are all in the same boat,’ and to demand our rights as the real owners of the boat, the return for our labour and sweat.”

The confederations announced that on Monday 18 August they will stop work nationwide and gather at 11:00 in front of the Ministry to hold a demonstration.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled 9 konfederasyon iş durduracak: Teklife geçit yok, published in BirGün newspaper on August 16, 2025.