Istanbul Municipal Workers Strike Against Social-Democratic Bosses

A minute past midnight, on the 16th of February, 2,300 Kadıköy municipal workers belonging to Anatolian Branch No 1 of Genel-İş (General Service Workers Union), member of DİSK (Progressive Workers Unions’ Confederation) went on strike after seven months of negotiations with the employer.

Genel-İş is not tolerated in municipalities ran by the right which are dominated by the Islamist regime union Hizmet-İş (All Municipal and General Service Workers Union), belonging to Hak-İş (Confederation of Turkish Real Unions). Consequently, Genel-İş tends to be organized in municipalities administered by the bourgeois left, and above all CHP (Republican People’s Party), which is an important player in DİSK, many of whose leaders became parliamentarians from this party after their term is over. Kadıköy municipal workers demonstrated their combativeness by managing to go on strike under these circumstances.

What happened?

The social democratic municipalities of various districts, lead by the Istanbul metropolitan municipality, acted in full class solidarity with the Kadıköy municipality from the beginning, sending their garbage collecting trucks to Kadıköy to break the strike. Kadıköy municipal workers told their class brothers and sisters sent to break their strike that what was stake was the interests of all municipal workers of the city, as there were other municipalities, such as Maltepe, Ataşehir and Kartal, where the collective bargaining process was ongoing. A gathering of workers from municipalities throughout Istanbul in front of the Kadıköy municipality seemed a likely possibility.

Late at night on the 18th on February, it was declared to the workers that an agreement was reached. A prominent politician from the Republican People’s Party had intervened to end the strike, maneuvering with the general headquarters of Genel-Is and forcing the Anatolian Branch No 1 to go along. The administrators of the branch told about the agreement to the workers representatives’ in tears, only to present it as a victory to the mass of workers. The figures were exaggerated and manipulated, however the workers’ gain ended up small.

In fact, despite being betrayed, the Kadıköy municipal workers inspired 1,500 workers from the Maltepe municipality to follow them into striking. Maltepe municipality workers continued their strike despite attempts to break it and physical attacks, until the headquarters reached an agreement with the boss wıthout havıng made sufficient gains behind the back of the workers and the Anatolian Branch No 2, where they were organized. The branch announced that they would continue the struggle anyway when they could not legally continue to strike. In the meanwhile the declared strikes of the municipal workers of Ataşehir, Kartal and Beşiktaş were over before they started as an agreement with the employer was reached directly by the Anatolian Branch No 1 and European Branch No 1 organized in Ataşehir and Beşiktaş, and once again by the Genel-İş headquarters behind Anatolian Branch No 1’s back in Kartal.

What should be done?

In their declaration, women workers’ representatives of the Kadıköy municipality state that: «This process has plainly shown us that everything is class based… Our union has ignored the will of the workers it represented because of directives coming from a political party. The strike of Kadıköy municipal workers had the potential to set an example for all workers, starting with the workers of other CHP municipalities, for this reason a result in workers favor it was very dangerous. For this reason, it was prevented by an intervention from the top, it was suppressed».

The leftist DİSK is not only ready to become a regime union, but doesn’t hesitate to act as one, due to its leadership that acts in line with the interests of social democratic politicians rather than that of workers. Nevertheless, DİSK, and other leftist union confederations and professional organizations, in many cases remain the only choice where combative workers can exist. Whether these workers can prevent the leftist unions from becoming full fledged regime unions remains to be seen. What matters above all is for the combative workers in the leftist unions to try break the influence of all kinds of bourgeois parties over these unions while working closely with the small but militant base unions towards the construction of the class unions of tomorrow.