Resistance yields gains for Maltepe Municipality workers who had halted work

The work stoppage started at Maltepe Municipality with the demand for the reinstating of dismissed workers and the implementation of the collective agreement has yielded gains. Following the work stoppage started at Maltepe Municipality Cleaning Works Unit, the municipal administration has stepped back and agreed to the workers’ demands.

With the demand for the reinstating of four workers who had been dismissed for trade union activities accepted, the first proposed raise of 270 lira as per the remuneration clause in the collective agreement was also raised to 310 lira. The municipal administration also re-agreed to all other clauses in the collective agreement.

With the work stoppage producing the desired result, the municipal workers ended the stoppage and restarted work. Indicating that the gains made through the action were important, the Genel-İş-member municipal workers said they would ready themselves for the collective agreement process that will start in six months.

SOLIDARITY VISIT TO THE WORKERS BY EMEP

In addition, the Labour Party (EMEP) Istanbul Provincial Organization visited the workers who had downed tools and imparted a message of solidarity. Speaking during the visit, EMEP Deputy General Chair Levent Tüzel pointed out that the workers had staged a united struggle for their demands and the parties of capital had adopted the same approach, be they in office or opposition. Saying, “We, Turkey’s workers and wage earners, want rights to be delivered, not opposition in words and verbal diarrhoea,” Tüzel said the cleaning workers had been forced to work for low pay. Saying they had followed the Maltepe resistance through Evrensel, Tüzel stated that resistance in unity would without fail attain success.