[stop-imf] Turkish unions held two-hour strike to protest IMF policy demands

[robert weissman]

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/turkey/8454016.asp?gid=231&sz=39360

Hurriyet English
March 15, 2008

Turkish unions held two-hour strike to protest reform
*Turkish unions ended on Friday two hour warning strike to protest
against the sought social security and general health insurance bill.
The transportation, street cleaning, education and health services
stopped during the strike. (UPDATED)*


Turk-Is Chairman Mustafa Kumlu said on Friday the unions will continue
the demonstrations on the day that the parliament starts debating the
bill if their demands are not met, while Turkish government criticized
the warning strike.

Also, no flights took-off for two hours; teachers didn't join classes;
doctors didn't take care of patients except emergencies, agencies
reported. Local news agencies also attended the strike with the official
Anatolian Agency suspended work between 10.15 a.m. and 10.30 and the
private ANKA only published the stories related to the two-hour
strike.

Turkish television showed doctors and nurses joining the strike, and
hospitals declining to provide services except in emergency cases.
Hundreds of workers holding Turkish flags gathered in front of their
work places in Ankara <http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/index/Ankara/> to
chant slogans against the government and IMF
<http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/index/imf/>. Workers said they wanted the
social security reform to be abandoned completely.

"We hope the government gets the necessary message from these mature
protests. We hope the government will put a basis for the necessary
agreement and amend the social security reform bill in line with the
realities of this country. Our aim is not to start a war but to solve
the issue with calmness" he said in a speech to the workers.

The umbrella platform of Turkish unions, Emek Platform early this week
decided to hold two hour warning strike on Friday and vowed to hold
larger strike if their demands are not met.

Turkey's social security deficit exceeded 25 billion lira ($20 billion)
in 2007, and officials warned it would reach nearly 30 billion lira this
year if the reform is not passed. The long-delayed social security
reform aims to cut this huge deficit and one of the conditions for the
release of a 1.3 billion dollars IMF
<http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/index/imf/> loan tranche. The bill, expected
to be approved by the parliament later this month, gradually raises the
retirement age of women and men to 65 (actually 58 and 60, respectively)
and the number of days they have to work from 7,000 to 9,000.

*ERDOGAN COMMENTS*

The labor unions and the opposition parties criticize the reform saying
that it raises the threshold for workers to reach retirement to a very
high level of 9,000 days. But the government says the current retirement
ages of 44 for women and 48 for men are not sustainable and the existing
system encourages early retirement.

The bill creates a new fund where future severance payments will be
transferred and the money accumulating here will be used in private
pension funds, another issue that the unions object. Workers will be
paid severance payments only in the case of death or retirement but not
lay-offs. The reform says workers will be paid severance payments only
in the case of death or retirement but not lay-offs, creating potential
conflict with the labor groups.

 Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan labeled the protest as illegal.
"Can you identify such action within a secular and social state
structure? Such things should be negotiated on the table and they had
already been negotiated" he told reportes in Ankara
<http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/index/Ankara/>.

Finance Minsiter Kemal Unakitan defended the bill on Friday saying it is
"an important reform that secures Turkey's future". "Not only are those
in Turkey but also those who are abroad and interested in Turkey
wondering whether Turkey can take this reform, therefore we have to
fulfil this structural reform," Unakitan told reporters.