TKP reacts sharply to Erdoğan's decision to postpone strike: It is the government, not the workers, that disrupts

No agreement could be reached in the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations between public sector workers and the government. In response to the laughable wage hike offers made by the government, workplaces organized under Türk-İş have decided to go on strike.

Following the announcement that strikes would be implemented in 500 institutions, the first strike decision was posted by the Turkey Mine Workers' Unions. Workers at these workplaces will begin their strike on August 1.

STRIKE BAN FROM ERDOĞAN

According to the decision by AKP President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan published in the Official Gazette, the strike in question has been postponed for 60 days. The reason for the ban was stated as the strike being considered "prejudicial to national security."

SHARP RESPONSE FROM TKP

The response to Erdoğan came from the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). In its statement, the TKP asserted that it is not the workers, but the government, that truly threatens national security.

The full text of the statement titled "It is not the workers who disrupt national security, but the government... The strike ban is null and void!" is as follows: 

"The government, which has been stalling 600,000 public workers for seven months, banned the strike that was to be launched after wage negotiations failed, claiming it was 'prejudicial to national security.'

This decision, which bans the strike that was to begin first at the borate facilities affiliated with Eti Maden, is of a nature that will also affect strike decisions in other institutions where public workers are employed. 

The government, which has been mocking 600,000 workers and their families for months, has now taken its anti-worker stance to another level by banning strikes. 

We are facing a government that has lost all seriousness. The initial wage offer made by the Minister of Labor—a 24 percent increase for the first six months and an increase at the rate of realized inflation for the second six months—was withdrawn following the intervention of Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek; the new offer was lowered below the rate of realized inflation. 

Not content with this, the government banned the strike decision taken by public workers for their rights, claiming it was 'prejudicial to national security.' 

What is prejudicial to the security of this country is not the workers struggling to bring bread to their homes, but the AKP government and the order of holding companies it represents! 

The strike ban decision, which the government—which declares itself anti-coup when it suits them—learned from the September 12 coup plotters, was torn up and discarded by metal workers just at the beginning of this year.

Our working class has the power to give the same response again to the government that is attempting to steal its right to strike once more!"

News Source: 12punto