ANKARA: Soaring affectation in Turkey has propelled a surge of strikes unlike any the country has seen since the 1970s, as workers demand further plutocrats to fight the shrinking value of their pay.
Supermarket storehouse worker Bekir Gok was sacked this month — alongside 256 of his associates — for demanding a redundant four Turkish liras (30 US cents) per hour, the fellow of a loaf of the chuck.
Still, after the workers at the Migros supermarket chain went on strike, they won back their jobs as well as pay rises and other demands, giving alleviation to displeased workers across the country.
“ We were asking for the price of a loaf of chuck! It’s nothing compared to what we’ve helped them earn since the epidemic began,” Gok said. Turkey’s periodic affectation rate officially reached48.7 percent in January, and workers have plodded to keep up with the sky-soaring cost of living.
Artificial action is rare in Turkey, where the major strikes that marked the 1970s remain a distant memory for the utmost — a military achievement in 1980 led to a crackdown on union conditioning.
Still, the country has seen further than 60 strikes, plant occupations, demurrers, and boycott calls involving at least workers in lower than two months, according to the independent Labour Studies Group.
The country has seen further than 60 strikes and other demurrers in lower than two months
One of the most prominent recent strikes was launched on Feb 1 by motorcycle couriers for the food delivery company Yemeksepeti Banabi.
“ We put our own lives in peril doing this work. We’re not working in a four-walled office, we deliver packages in snow and rain,” said Izzet Baskin, a 27- time-old delivery worker for the company in the capital Ankara.
His coworker Ferhat Uyar said that after paying his rent and energy bills he’s unfit to go the products he delivers, similar as takeaway coffee from Starbucks.
Yemeksepeti Banabi delivery couriers presently admit liras ($ 305) a month, now the minimal paycheck after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan increased the rate by 50pc for 2022. But the Turk-Is union said last month the poverty position was liras. The Banabi workers are on strike demanding lower than half that figure liras.
German company Delivery Hero bought Yemeksepeti Banabi for$ 589 million in 2015. Freight workers’ union Nakliyat-Is, which is supporting the delivery workers on strike across Turkey, said nearly 100 couriers were killed in the once three months, compared with 190 deaths in all of 2020.
“ These are workplaces where there’s no supervision of workers’ health or security,” the union’s Ankara representative Bayram Karkin said. To make their demands heard, the riders — incontinently recognizable in their fluorescent pink jackets and helmets — blocked roads with their motorcycles.
The company also made a late executive change to officially register the workers under the “ office” marker rather than as transport workers, so they couldn’t be members of the Nakliyat-Is union, Karkin said.
There’s an ongoing legal case challenging the move.
There were calls on social media for a boycott against companies indicted for ignoring hand demands, and unions say Yemeksepeti Banabi saw a drop of 70pc in orders.
The success of delivery workers at Turkish-commerce company Trendyol has also inspired numerous seeking further pay.
