Özgür Özel: I invite all workers to organized struggle

CHP Chairman Özgür Özel met with metal workers who have begun a resistance in Kocaeli. DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu accompanied Özel during his visit to the resistance site. "Workers organized under Birleşik Metal demanded their rights. In Turkey, they deemed a wage like 17,002 TL—which, let alone being a wage, is 3,000 lira below the hunger threshold—as appropriate for minimum wage earners for an entire year and did not give a single penny of a raise," said Özgür Özel, inviting workers to an organized struggle. 

Özel made the following statements: 

“I would like to address all laborers in Turkey from here. A struggle is being waged here today. There is a resistance against the exploitation of labor. This resistance is being carried out by the Birleşik Metal İş Union, which is affiliated with DİSK and organized in these factories. In other words, the union is seeking rights here, standing by those who seek rights. I salute all the workers who are waging a labor struggle and an organized struggle in the person of the Union's Chair and DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu, and I invite all workers in Turkey to an organized struggle.

No union is worse than not being unionized. Wherever a fellow worker proposes to be unionized, proposes to organize, they are actually proposing to protect their future and their child's future together, and to stand up for their sweat together. We call out to all laborers; organize!" 

Speaking about the minimum wage agenda, for which the third meeting was held today, Özgür Özel said, "Workers organized under Birleşik Metal demanded their rights. In Turkey, they deemed a wage like 17,002 TL—which, let alone being a wage, is 3,000 lira below the hunger threshold—as appropriate for minimum wage earners for an entire year and did not give a single penny of a raise." 

Özel continued his speech as follows: 

"No wage came out of the commission, which held its third meeting today. As the CHP, we stated our minimum wage demand very early and decisively, even though we knew it was very insufficient. They were trying to force the public to accept a minimum wage of 20,000-21,000 TL with no raises for 1 year. We stepped up with courage and said, 'Our minimum wage demand is 30, we are not in on anything below that.' We fully embrace DİSK's expectations regarding the minimum wage, their approach reminding us of the hunger and poverty thresholds in this country, and their criticisms regarding the minimum wage becoming the base wage."

News Source: 12punto