According to the report by the Labour Studies Association, 46 thousand workers last year attended in more than 600 demonstrations and 420 of these were held in the working places. The decrease in the workers’ demonstrations verified President Tayyip Erdoğan’s statement that the government used state of emergency against the strikes by workers. It was stated that the number of the workers’ demonstrations in working places in 2015 was 628 and there is a one-third decrease in one year.
The report emphasised the possible reason of the decrease in demonstrations by workers is the rise of an authoritarian administration and the violence after the general elections in 2015.
While the number of the average monthly demonstrations in the first 6 months of 2016 was 105, it dropped to 47 in the same period of the next year. The report stated the fact that only 46 thousand workers among nearly 28 million workers in Turkey attended in demonstrations has shown how unorganised the working class in Turkey is.
According to the report, at least 1,259 workers were dismissed after they attended in organised struggle of the working class.
