DİSK calls on all women in Turkey to strike

As we approach March 8, International Women's Day, there is a call from DİSK to all women working in every sector—from factories to workshops, municipalities to plazas, whether white-collar, blue-collar, or homemakers, producing in every field:

“We are raising our voices for equality, freedom, and justice! We are bringing life to a halt with our demands for equality, freedom, and justice against those who attack our hard-won rights!”

In a press statement today, DİSK called on all women in Turkey to bring life to a halt on March 7. DİSK President Arzu Çerkezoğlu,

“In our statement last year on March 8, we said, ‘WE WILL BUILD THE SECOND CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC AS THE CENTURY OF LABOR AND WOMEN.’ Now, we are taking a new step to show once again that we stand behind our word,” she said, inviting all women in Turkey to bring life to a halt on March 7.

Stating that there is no abandonment of the insistence on policies that leave women's labor uncompensated, confine women to the home, keep them impoverished, and make them vulnerable to violence, while failing to take measures against the ever-increasing femicides and the skyrocketing poverty among women, DİSK is once again raising its voice of objection against the high cost of living, low wages, precarious employment policies, and discrimination.

A very justified move. What would happen if the women of Turkey stopped working for one day?

What would happen if we stood together against the inequalities, precariousness, pressures, violence, and harassment in both our working lives and our invisible domestic labor?

What would happen if we left our work, the dishes we wash, the laundry, and walked out of “FACTORIES, WORKSHOPS, OFFICES, PLAZAS, MUNICIPALITIES, HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, AND HOMES,” filled the squares, and brought life to a halt on March 7?

What would happen if we put courage before fear?

In the history of the Turkish working class, women have played a huge role in what could be called turning-point resistances. Social security, retirement, the 8-hour workday—every right workers have today was won through struggle. The impact of women in strikes and resistances is invaluable. This time, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) is inviting all women—workers, civil servants, plaza employees, and homemakers—to join the struggle without distinction.

For equal pay for equal work, the right to a dignified life, the implementation of effective penalties in the fight against violence towards women and girls, for our safety in our workplaces, and for the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 190…

For the implementation of public social policies that will lift the burden of care from women…

Not parental support instead of maternal support, but parental leave instead of pregnancy leave! Not birth incentives, but qualified, public, free daycare! For regular and secure employment!

On March 7, women will stop work with these demands!

The decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention must be immediately reversed, and the Convention and Law No. 6284 must be implemented effectively.

• The ILO Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190, which entered into force on June 25, 2021, must be ratified and implemented by the Turkish government.

• Practices such as sexist 'good conduct' reductions and provocation discounts in gender-based crimes and femicides must be abandoned. Policies of impunity must be ended immediately.

• Discussions aimed at usurping the right to alimony must be ended.

• Public social policies must be implemented to lift the burden of care labor from women.

• Daycare centers, day-care homes, and nursing homes for the sick and elderly must be expanded and defined as a right that everyone can benefit from for free.

• Gender-based discrimination against women in working life must be abandoned, and secure and decent jobs must be created.

• Instead of the flexible working models proposed in the government's policies to increase women's employment, full-time and secure employment opportunities must be created for women.

• Equal representation in authority and decision-making mechanisms must be ensured.

• An equal pay for equal work policy must be implemented, and inspection mechanisms must be established to ensure its application in every workplace.