The Revolutionary Trade Union Confederation (DİSK), the Turkish Trade Union Confederation (TÜRK-İŞ) and the Haq Trade Union Confederation (HAK-İŞ) held a joint press conference at their Türk İş headquarters titled “We demand: a life worthy of human dignity,” they said in a statement.
The coalition prepared a manifesto containing workers’ demands regarding wage taxes, inflation and the minimum wage, which it shared with the public.
At a press conference, Ergün Atalay, Chairman of the Turkish İşık, said that the current economic situation is different from past crises, and that retirees and minimum wage earners are facing great difficulties. Atalay stressed that in the current situation, it is impossible to live even for a week on the minimum wage, and said that claims such as “the minimum wage is high” are meaningless and do not correspond to the facts.
The minimum wage should be raised immediately.
HAK-İŞ Chairman Mahmud Arslan said that looking at macroeconomic indicators, the share of workers and wage earners in Turkey’s national income is decreasing. Arslan said there is a negative trend in Turkey regarding the fair distribution of wealth and that the minimum wage is being transformed into a general wage.
The manifesto, issued under the joint name of the labor federations, is organized under 10 headings containing demands and proposals for the government. Titled “The minimum wage should be increased immediately,” it stresses that inflation is not an acceptable situation for workers and that it is unrealistic to expect workers to make sacrifices to curb inflation.
We received a response from the AKP
At a meeting to discuss the proposed law to be debated in July, AKP Group Deputy Chairman Abdullah Güler said the minimum wage would not be raised and that it would be impossible to raise pensions to the minimum wage level.
