Harsh Reaction from KESK to the Government and Memur-Sen: "Labor Demands a Real Bargain

ANKARA - The negotiations for the 8th Term Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which will determine the financial and social rights of public employees, continue in a tense atmosphere due to the fact that the government has not yet submitted a proposal and the process has been compressed into a narrow timeframe. The Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions (KESK) came together with labor and professional organizations at the alternative table they set up in protest of their exclusion from the negotiations. Bahadır Bedircioğlu, a member of KESK's Central Executive Committee, said in a statement, "Laborers do not expect anything from Memur-Sen" and emphasized the real demands of public workers and their determination to struggle.

CBA Process Proceeds Without Seriousness

The fact that the government has yet to make an offer in the 8th round of CBA negotiations is causing great concern among unions and public employees. Commenting on this critical process to BirGün, Bedircioğlu stated that the negotiations have been proceeding in an unserious manner from the beginning. He stated that KESK had prepared its own CBA demands together with a wide range of people, but that the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, disregarding even its own laws, brought the process forward by 4 days. As a reaction to this situation, they set up an alternative CBA table in front of the Ministry on July 28. Bedircioğlu said, "The demands are being negotiated by the authorized signatory confederation Memur-Sen and others. However, the fact that Memur-Sen, which has signed seven CBAs before, is authorized at the 8th CBA table, and looking at the past signatures, it is possible to say that public laborers do not expect anything from this process," he said, expressing his distrust in Memur-Sen.

"The Arbitration Committee is a pretext, the real struggle is the strike"

Bedircioğlu argued that the Public Arbitration Board, which steps in when the CBA process is blocked, has become a "threat". The independence of the board's decisions is questionable as its members are appointed by the President, Bedircioğlu said, claiming that the board only acts as a "notary public". According to him, what really matters is the struggle and the power the unions will use when the CBA ends in a dispute. "To say that the delegation accepted this is completely contrary to the trade union struggle," Bedircioğlu said, stressing that it is a sine qua non of a real collective bargaining system that laborers exercise their right to strike by using their power from production.

KESK's Demands are Clear and Concrete

Bedircioğlu called on unions to unite in a united struggle to bring the voices of working people to the table and listed in detail the demands that KESK has collected from the grassroots. The Confederation demands that the salaries of public laborers be raised above the poverty line without waiting for January and calls for a 98% raise that would raise the lowest public laborer salary above 100 thousand TL.

In addition to financial demands, important items were also put forward on social rights and justice. KESK is demanding that the diluted increase given to public laborers in 2023, which has reached 18,682 TL today, be reflected in their pensions without waiting. It also wants the first tax bracket to be reduced to 10%, stating that laborers are crushed under the tax burden. The abolition of the interviews, which have become an unfair recruitment process and an apparatus for staffing, is also among KESK's prioritized demands.

Determination to Follow the Process

Bedircioğlu emphasized at the end of his statement that as United Public Workers Union, they will follow this process to the end and will never leave the pursuit of the material and moral rights of public laborers. He stated that it is imperative that public laborers are not oppressed in a high inflation environment, that they receive the welfare share they deserve and that an offer is presented that will raise the value of working in the state again. KESK's determined stance shows that not only salary increases, but also union rights and working conditions will be the most important agenda items at the CBA table.

source: birgun.net