The minister is looking for an accomplice
After there was no longer a worker representative at the minimum wage negotiations, the government is looking for an address to share responsibility with. While Minister Işıkhan emphasises “social dialogue”, workers have lost hope and are carving out their own path through strikes and resistance.
Labour Service
The government has continued its search for accomplices after there was no longer a worker representative at the minimum wage table. The table, which has completely lost its legitimacy, will meet once again today without worker representation. Speaking about a table that workers have no expectations of, the Minister of Labour and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan said, “I will take the unions’ views.” Türk-İş, pointing out that other confederations have no authority on the minimum wage under the legislation, responded, “We are in the same place as what we said a year ago.”
The minimum wage table, criticised for its anti-democratic structure and where workers’ rights are seized every year, is meeting this year without the workers’ side after Türk-İş also refused to take part. Ahead of a decision that will be taken with an arrangement that will not “upset” employers, Minister Işıkhan’s words remain full of conciliatory talk such as social dialogue and meeting with unions.
Stating that they have an open communication structure with all unions, Işıkhan also said regarding the minimum wage figure that will apply in the new year, “As part of social dialogue, we will run every process. I will meet with unions and take their views, that is my duty. We will certainly consult.”
WORKERS ARE CARVING OUT THEIR OWN PATH
The working class, which has no expectations from the minimum wage table where employers and the government that backs them form the majority, is carving out its own path.
• At the Smart Solar factory in Gebze, negotiations for the 2nd term collective bargaining agreement between Birleşik Metal and the employer ended without a result. When the employer insisted on a poverty wage rise, workers began a strike.
• The strike by the Nakliyat-İş union affiliated to DİSK has begun at TÜVTÜRK Vehicle Inspection Stations.
• In Temel Conta, operating in Kemalpaşa, İzmir, the employer still has not sat down at the collective bargaining table, even though more than 370 days have passed since the strike began. Over more than a year, solidarity built by workers organised in Petrol-İş has grown in the strike tent. The strike area has become the centre of persistence, stubbornness, and determination.
• In the Şık Makas / Crs Denim factory in Tokat’s Organised Industrial Zone, the resistance started by workers has passed two months. Eight hundred workers who were dismissed after going on a de facto strike because they had not been paid are continuing their struggle together with the union they are organised in, the United Textile Weaving and Leather Workers’ Union (BİRTEK-SEN).
• In Digel Tekstil, of German origin, operating in the Aegean Free Zone in Gaziemir, İzmir, it has been almost a year since the resistance of workers dismissed for using their trade union rights began. Women workers fighting mobbing, harassment, and discrimination stress that this resistance is not only about returning to work but also about equal and dignified working conditions.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Bakan kendine suç ortağı arıyor, published in BirGün newspaper on December 18, 2025.
