Failed contract talks have left hundreds of workers at three tobacco factories in Turkiye’s western İzmir province on strike, demanding higher wages and better benefits. Union leaders accused employers of offering unrealistic proposals and favoring subcontractors.
At the beginning of this week, 600 workers at Sunel Tobacco, 800 workers at Oriental Tobacco, and 300 workers from T.T.L. Tobacco, all organized under the Tekgıda-İş Union, halted production.
Tekgıda-İş İzmir No. 7 Branch President Ömer Atabey said there were separate negotiations, but the three factories acted together. “They keep telling us, ‘If the collective agreement is settled at one, it will be settled at all.’ We responded, ‘If you employers have united, then we workers at the three factories have united too.’ We put this decision into action for the benefit of our members, and we will continue our struggle until we receive the wages and social rights we demand,” he said.
“They are trying to stall us by offering only a 2% or 4% welfare increase above inflation,” Atabey said. “The three employers are acting together and trying to impose terms on us. We responded to this with worker solidarity. We decided to strike at the start of the second sixty-day period, without waiting for the end. That’s because there is a huge gap between our demands and their offers. They are not objective, they are not realistic.”
Atabey also said employers paid subcontractors up to 2,000 liras ($55). “But they are unwilling to offer similar wages to their own workers. This was one of the biggest breaking points for the workers. The employers are not objective or realistic,” he said.