KESK protest
The Confederation of Unions of Public Workers (KESK) protested the 30 percent increase in public workers with an action it organized in Ankara.
Speaking at the action, KESK Ankara branch platform spokesperson Sacit Ünalmış said: “The president’s ‘good news’, which is putting a few points on fake TÜİK figures, has no counterpart against real inflation. we are experiencing and the terrible collapse of purchasing power.
‘WORKERS FACE THE BERMUDA DEVIL TRIANGLE’
Ünalmış said: “Workers and retirees face the Bermuda Triangle. With the whirlwind created by the government, TÜİK and the confederation of supporters, the workers are condemned to a misery wage, which we cannot even call a full stomach,” he said.
Arguing that public workers were constantly losing and their purchasing power melting during the AKP rule, Unalmış said, “It is not even possible to dream of buying a house with a retirement bonus 20 years ago,” saying:
“6.5 million public workers and retirees have spent years paying the price for the government’s false inflation figures.
The president’s “gospel”, which consists of putting a few points into bogus TURKSTAT figures, is nothing in the face of real inflation and the horror of purchasing power.
Our people, apart from the people who make up the top 1 percent of the population, rent-seeking circles and capital, have no more strength to resist. The wages of workers and retirees must be increased at least as much as the increase in the minimum wage.
Either we stop this trend or we stop it. We will build a life worthy of human dignity by fighting together with all the segments that are suffering the serious consequences of the government’s policies in favor of capital”.
‘TURKSTAT STEALS OUR BREAD WITH FALSE NUMBERS’
In addition, CHP Ankara MP Yıldırım Kaya and some professional organizations and associations supported the protest.
Unalmış said: “With the whirlwind created by the government, TÜİK and the confederation of supporters, the workers are trying to live on a poverty wage that we cannot even call a full stomach. By announcing false figures, TURKSTAT, the government and the union of supporters stole one of our loaves and a plate of food from our table,” he said.
‘THIS TRIO HAS BEEN PLAYING THE SAME GAME FOR YEARS’
“This trio has been playing the same game for years,” Ünalmış said, “The confederation underwrites rates below inflation, TurkStat hides real inflation by announcing rates that are in line with government economic policies every six months, and the government kindly announces the rate of increase by giving the inflation difference based on TurkStat data. However, as we always underline, a salary increase in line with inflation means a ‘zero’ increase.
Unalmış said: “According to the TUIK data, which is made up of fake numbers, a salary increase means a decrease in our real income and an increase in our poverty.”
‘THE LOWEST WAGE HAS BEEN REDUCED TO 1/3 OF THE POVERTY LINE’
Unalmis continued as follows:
“The lowest wage for public workers, which was more than double the minimum wage 20 years ago, has fallen below the minimum wage to the point where we have reached today. The average salary of public workers, which is more than 3 times the minimum wage, is only 500 TL above the current minimum wage.
The lowest salary for a public worker, which just a year ago was about half the poverty line, has now been reduced to a third of the poverty line.”
‘THE GOOD WILL OF THE PRESIDENT HAS NO REFERENCE’
“The government loudly announced that the salaries of public workers and retirees will be increased by 25 percent in January 2023,” Unalmis said, adding: “After the great reaction, the increase was revised by 30 percent. cent within 24 hours. . They played and played as if it were the opposition who said 25 percent. We are before an exemplary and unionist government, ”he said.
Unalmış said: “6.5 million public workers and retirees have been paying the price for the CIS agreements, which do not exceed the false inflation figures of the confederations and the government, for years.”
“The statements of the government, the ‘good news’ of the President, which consists of putting a few points to the false figures from TURKSTAT, have no answer in the face of real inflation and the terrible drop in purchasing power that we are experiencing.”
HERE ARE THE REQUESTS OF PUBLIC WORKERS
Ünalmış listed the demands of public workers as follows:
- “First, to reduce losses to some extent, the salaries of public workers and all retirees must be increased by at least as much as the increase in the minimum wage;
- For a salary sufficient to live humanely, the salary of the lowest public worker must be increased above the poverty line through increases in social payments such as the spousal benefit, the child allowance, the rent subsidy, the subsidy Of transport;
- We demand the immediate cessation of the injustice of the income tax, which places the entire tax burden on the shoulders of the employees, which grows more each year, and that the rate of the first tranche of the income tax be reduced from 15 to 10 percent, and wages and salaries up to the poverty line are set in the first tax bracket”.
WHO IS REMOVING STAFF?
KESK Co-Chairman Şükran Kaplan Yeşil stated that inflation was intended to be shown to be low before the public worker wage increase rates were opened, saying:
“When the salary increase for public workers is announced at the end of each December and beginning of January, you can pull down inflation, the rise in food prices and natural gas that for some reason burn our hands in the markets.
Public workers are now very fed up with this. It doesn’t end there. Our problems, which have become gigantic, impose on us the precarious work model, which has become gigantic with the policies of privatization and liquidation of the public, while we are exposed to these increases in poverty and misery.
A bill with the signature of AKP deputies will arrive in Parliament on Monday. A few days ago, a regulation regarding the event of the President’s participation in the staff of contracted employees arrived in Parliament, which the confederation of his supporters turned into a party.
Now we ask ourselves, who is eliminating the existence of secure and permanent employment in the public sector? What government economic policies make various forms of employment, such as contract, contract, paid, 4C, 6D, non-merit based public appointments, almost basic employment?”