BY BOBBIS MISAILIDES
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Some 250,000 public employees began returning to work after officials of Turk Is, the main union federation, reached an agreement with the Turkish government October 26. The workers took part in the country's longest nationwide strike in more than 15 years.
The walkout - including workers in mining, road construction, public transportation, sugar refining, and in the metal, paper, leather, and textile industries - began September 20. More than 350,000 of Turkey's 687,000 public employees walked out by the third week of the strike.
Thousands of workers took part in demonstrations. They protested austerity measures pushed by the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The fightback by working people produced a governmental crisis for Turkey's capitalist rulers. Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, of the right-wing True Path party (DYP), resigned following the withdrawal of the social democratic People's Republican Party (CHP) from the governing coalition hours after the strike began.
In face of the determined labor resistance, the rulers divided over how far to push their austerity drive against working people, as well as their war against Turkey's Kurdish oppressed nationality.
On October 15 Ciller failed to win a parliamentary vote of confidence. The ballot was over a new, minority government coalition she patched together, which included the fascist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP). Both of these parties, which hold 17 and 10 seats respectively in the country's 450-seat parliament, joined Ciller's ill-fated coalition on the condition that she force an end to the public employees' strike.
The same day, tens of thousands of strikers and their supporters rallied in Ankara's Kizilay square to press their demands for pay increases. The workers also demanded a vote of no confidence for the new government. The main slogans on placards and signs were, "Down with the IMF; For an independent Turkey," and "We are with Turk Is."
The rally took place in an atmosphere of police intimidation. Ohar Tasanlar, Ankara's chief of police, declared the gathering illegal and called on workers not to participate.
The cops set up roadblocks on the way to Ankara, the country's capital, preventing thousands of workers from cities and towns across the country from attending. Car caravans and buses from Izmir, Mersin, Baiman, and Diyarbakir (the biggest city of southeastern Turkey), were prevented from reaching the rally. Thousands of workers from Istanbul and neighboring cities were stopped on the way to Ankara; they protested by staging a sit-in on the highway. At the demonstration, police arrested 54 workers.
Turk Is leader Bayram Meral addressed the protest rally in Ankara. "The collective bargaining negotiations have been going on for 10 months," he said. "And their latest offer is an annual raise of 16 percent. Is there anyone who would accept this proposal?" Inflation in Turkey runs currently at 90 percent per year. At the beginning of the negotiations, Ciller insisted on a piddling wage raise of 5.4 percent.
On October 16, Ciller announced an agreement to form a second ruling coalition with the People's Republican Party, its ex-partner. In doing so, the prime minister accepted some of the conditions presented by the CHP leadership. These included resignation of Istanbul's police chief, Necdet Menzir, notorious for his defense of the most brutal methods by his cops and of the war against the Kurdish nationality. They also called for a "more fair" settlement for the public employees.
Ciller then moved to put an end to the nationwide walkout. She began by ordering 73,000 strikers at sugar refineries, railroads, docks, and paper and pharmaceutical factories back to work. The government used an antilabor law that halts strike action if it "disrupts public health and national security."
Workers were not cowed, however. On October 17, 300,000 civil service employees joined the public workers walkout for a 24-hour strike also called by Turk Is. The government conceded rapidly. Minister of the Economy Ismet Attila announced that Ankara would grant civil servants a 54 percent increase for 1996.
Despite continued government and police intimidation, more than 250,000 public workers remained on strike until they reached a settlement that approached what they thought they were big enough to get under the circumstances.
They ended the walkout after winning a 35 percent raise for this year, retroactive to January 1, 1995, and a 41 percent increase for 1996.