Municipality workers in Turkey's Ankara stopped working to protest wages

Cleaning workers of Çankaya municipality of Turkey's capital Ankara went on strike as the collective bargaining process has been stopped to the detriment of the workers
Friday, 09 August 2019 15:33

Cleaning, park and garden workers of Çanpaş Inc. of Çankaya municipality in Turkish capital Ankara have stopped working as the collective bargaining process has come to a deadlock, leaving the workers' demands unmet.

Workers who stopped working at midnight by not collecting the garbage in the Çankaya district met in front of a municipality building in the morning in Mühye to protest.

Municipality workers stated that they have not been given wage raise for 20 months and they are determined and will continue to struggle until the municipality accept their demands. 

Çankaya, one of the biggest districts of the capital Ankara, is governed by the opposition party CHP.

Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) released a statement, supporting the municipality workers on strike. Noting that the decree-law published by the ruling AKP in December 2017 was supposed to regulate the transition of the subcontracted workers to permanent positions but it left workers with a great loss of rights, TKP Ankara Provincial Organization declared that it is unacceptable that the workers do not have the right to unionize until 2020.

"TKP supports the righteous struggle of the workers who work in the CHP-Çankaya Municipality, which is not really different than the ruling AKP in terms of exploiting the workers' rights. The demands of Çankaya Municipality workers must be met immediately!" said Ankara provincial organization in its statement.