Türk-İş President Ergün Atalay: 'We will no longer participate in the commission!'

We wanted minimum wage earners to be at this table and for them to make the decision. We announced their demands to the public in front of you. Our colleagues requested 29,583 TL. A week passed, and while it was said it would be Thursday or Friday, the meeting took place last night. In 3 meetings, the parties did not bring a figure before us. We stated that our demand is that the living conditions stipulated in the Constitution must be met, and it must be an amount that makes a humane life possible. We expressed that the minimum wage should not be a subject of bargaining. If possible, it should be adjusted twice a year during periods of high inflation.

'THE ANNOUNCED WAGE HAS NO ACCEPTABLE ASPECT'

We held a meeting with the largest labor confederations other than ourselves in July and said that we have problems regarding taxes. We said that public workers have fallen to the minimum wage level. The public sector needs these workers in every industry. They retired 45-year-old people, but despite us saying the country needs them, our colleagues continue to retire one after another. We held 17 protests, rallies, and panels. Most recently, on October 20, we held a rally in Ankara with the participation of 150 thousand of our colleagues. We made promises to retirees and minimum wage earners. We followed the work on the 2025 budget in Parliament with great anticipation.

There is a need for a regulation regarding taxes. We said that what we receive in January, we cannot receive in March; we work for 12 months and give 2 months to taxes. There was no positive development regarding this. In all 3 minimum wage meetings, no figure was brought to the table. The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Finance are at this table... Unfortunately, they informed us around 6:30 PM last night, and then the Minister spoke with me. We decided not to attend this meeting. In 30 years, a decision was made by consensus 6 times, and we have put a dissenting opinion on this meeting 22 times. We had no knowledge of the figure. For this reason, there was no point in us being at that meeting yesterday.

'THIS COMMISSION IS NOT FAIR'

We participate as 15 people. The employer and the government act together and get the decision they want. There are friends who ask why you went yesterday when you stated the figure of 29,583 TL. We did not go there; we did not participate in the meeting. A truck driver calls me and thanks me for our stance. Educated people still get up and write that Türk-İş went and accepted it. We saw that our words were not listened to and we had no authority in the commission, so we did not attend the meeting. This announced wage, whether annual or 6-monthly, has no acceptable side. We explained everywhere that it should be 29,583 TL. For 74 years, Türk-İş has always been on the side of democracy and the worker. On February 28 and July 15, the worker was always on the streets. There are those who lay in front of the tank and those who applauded; we were among those who lay in front of the tank. We were on the side of those who defended the country's interests.

Mr. Mehmet Şimşek says financial institutions praise the country. If this is the case, those with low and fixed incomes should also grow from this. It is not possible to call this raise good. We are in difficulty; we cannot make ends meet. It is of no use to anyone to beat us up. This commission is not fair; this commission is an anti-democratic commission. We stayed in an unfair commission for 50 years. As long as a fair regulation is not made, we will not participate in the Minimum Wage Determination Commission. If there is a fair and democratic commission and our words are listened to, we are in this commission. However, we will no longer participate in that commission just for the sake of appearances. We are not here. Even if we were, our words are not listened to."