İzmir strike enters its 7th day: Union decides to go to the ballot box

The strike initiated by approximately 23,000 workers employed by İZENERJİ and İZELMAN, affiliated with the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, has now entered its seventh day following the failure to reach an agreement in collective bargaining negotiations between the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and the General-İş Trade Union.

A negotiation table was set up again yesterday, but no resolution was reached. The employer increased its previous offer, proposing a 30% wage increase for the first six months and a 19% increase for the second six months, but union officials rejected the offer.

VOTING TO BE HELD

However, it was reported that İZELMAN workers decided to hold a vote on the final offer one day before the holiday. According to the information obtained, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay's final offer will be put to a vote by the workers.

İZELMAN workers will vote on the municipality's offer of a 30% increase for the first six months and a 19% increase for the second six months.

NO AGREEMENT REACHED IN THE LAST MEETING

The parties came together at the negotiation table. Following the meeting, where no agreement was reached, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality (İzBB) Mayor Cemil Tugay criticised the union, saying:

“Our expectation from the union is that it should see the conditions in Turkey. We expect them not to cause hardship for the people of İzmir, to approach the situation with understanding, and to sign the agreement. Tonight, I only saw people who were dealing with us on another level of the negotiation. I need people who can understand the situation in Turkey and the situation in İzmir. I don't expect them to understand me, but they must understand this society, this city, and this country. We are discussing how to use the municipal budget in the most appropriate and fair manner.

This is a very dramatic situation. Our friends have been continuing these discussions for days. They told me today that we might be able to reach an agreement, so I came, but I saw a group saying things to make the agreement difficult. I am referring this situation first to our employees who have pinned their hopes on these unions and are waiting for results. Then I am referring it to the appreciation of the people of İzmir. If they say that what these friends are doing is right, please come and tell me. We have done our part to reach an agreement. From my perspective, the door for negotiations with these individuals is closed. I would like to negotiate, but it is not possible to negotiate and reach an agreement with this mindset.”

Ercan Gül, President of DİSK General İş İzmir Branch No. 2, said the following in his statement after the meeting:

“In the evening, they said, ‘Come, let's talk. President Cemil will also be there.’ When we went to the meeting, we had an offer, which was updated to 30%. They said, ‘We will give you the inflation difference in June instead of July and add two points on top of that.’ We also have a work continuation and report incentive. The average wage is 42,000 TL. They said this would be added to our wages each month under a different name, amounting to 1,500 TL. We have been resisting here for days. They said we were the ones blocking the process, but we did everything we could to prevent it from stalling. If we needed to take a step, we took it. We just wanted this collective agreement to be resolved positively tonight. Unfortunately, it didn't happen.

‘HIS ANGER IS VERY HIGH, AND WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS ATTITUDE"

Here, we will do our best to stay away from individual lawsuits and grow our livelihood. If this fight is to continue after the holiday, we need to sit down with our representative colleagues and make a decision. There is a mayor who is seriously trying to discredit four branch presidents and regional representatives in the public eye with different statements, as if trying to take the process in a different direction with political disputes. His anger is very high, and we don't understand this attitude either. We want to end it with a compromise, but it's not happening. If any of our colleagues want the collective bargaining agreement to end and this committee to be established, we will make that decision. As Mayor Cemil said, ‘If this is the perspective, I won't sit at the table.’ We told them we are open to discussion. We haven't closed the doors to anyone. If the doors are closed in our faces, we will make that decision and determine our own path.”

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