TARİŞ workers: 'Our only chance of getting a good wage is to organize'

Dilek OMAKLILAR
İzmir

The TARİŞ Olive and Olive Oil plant workers who were dismissed for being members of the Gıda-İş Trade Union affiliated to the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) say it is now impossible to support a household if one of the spouses does not work. As to negotiations over the minimum wage due to start in a period on which the economic crisis impacts ever more heavily, they say, “Our only chance of getting a good wage is to organize.”

Noting that under Turkish conditions it is impossible to get by if one member of a married couple with children does not work, a worker says, “As such, the minimum wage should in my view be at least 2,500 TL and the tax on it should also be scrapped.”

For his part, another worker said, “They will fob the workers off to prevent a potential social explosion. I think they will stretch it to 2,000 TL including the minimum subsistence deduction. But this will not be enough for workers. So, the workers have no other option but to organize and fight for their rights.”

‘HOW ARE WE TO GET BY ON 2,000 LIRA WITH THE STARVATION LINE CLEARLY DEFINED?’

A worker with two children, in turn, said, “My wife works and my home is not rented, although it was my father who bought it. We should never be in this position. One wage in the household goes on the kids’ expenses anyway. They say what’s one hand when it takes two to make noise, don’t they? One hand has gone. I don’t know what we’ll do now. It’s a nerve-wracking business.” The worker had the following to say about the minimum wage: “I think it will be 1850 lira. The most they can make it is 1900. The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions is calling for two thousand. Kılıçdaroğlu says it should be 2,200. Since the government can’t give either, it will strike a medium. The starvation line in this country is 1900 lira and the minimum wage is 1603 lira. These are the facts as they stand. It should be at least 2,500 TL. How can a family get by on 2,000 TL?”

‘UNFAIR TAXATION ON THE ONE SIDE AND SKEWED WAGES ON THE OTHER’

Yet another worker says, “Well, how should this be set? We need to discuss this. Employers and government representatives are on the same front and the trade unionist does not seriously stand up for me. You are first going to look at standards of living. You set the starvation and poverty line in this country but you don’t even discuss this. There needs to be another force here. We talk about Kılıçdaroğlu saying this and Türk-İş saying that and striking a deal in between, but another force should set this. And that is those involved: workers, the retired, non-unionized workers, the unemployed. You’ve got to make voices heard about this from the bottom. Unfair taxation hits you from the one side and a skewed wage system from the other.” Indicating that the way outcomes in the form of workers and working people organizing, the workers say, “There needs to be bottom-up pressure over the minimum wage. This is the solution. If we want a good wage and to create a working environment fit for humans, workers will organize; it’s the only option.”

WE HAVE TO PAY OFF LOANS WITH LOANS

The economic crisis is also one of the themes weighing down on the workers’ minds. Noting that the situation has turned from a foreign exchange crisis into an economic crisis, the worker says, “The effects of the crisis will be even more perceptible tomorrow. There are redundancies but not on a mass scale. The soaring dollar is weighing down on us. Now the government indulges in self-praise as the dollar falls saying we took such-and-such measures and made a new economic package. In fact, if we were an organized society, we would say these prices should come down given that the dollar has fallen, but everything stays super expensive.”

SIXTY PEOPLE RESIGNED BECAUSE OF DEBT

Another worker, stating that 90% of the workers at the TARİŞ plant are indebted, then says, “As soon as wages are deposited more than half goes on loans. The money that people can set aside for themselves no longer has any buying power. Enough cash remains for a single filled pastry or bread roll on the way to work. Everyone is indebted and these are not loans for cars or homes. Paying off loans with loans is now a necessity. The final unseen bill from the economic crisis will be that they will start to leave the loans they can’t repay to be recovered in enforcement proceedings. The bosses have not paid the price in any crisis. It has always been the workers, working people and farmers who have done so. Sixty people resigned at their own wish at the TARİŞ plant over the past year because they couldn’t repay their loans.  They opted for a solution that says let’s get my severance pay and settle my debt. There are also people doing extra jobs from among the workers employed here. There are those who go to the market and sell olive oil, sell fruit and do driving work at weekends.”

Translated from Turkish by Tim Drayton