After the beginning of a two-day general strike called by KESK, the 250,000-member public sector trade union confederation, the trade unions started to mobilise their members to support those who are protesting what they decry as an increasingly authoritarian and repressive regime. KESK was preparing for an upcoming strike in opposition to restrictive changes to labour legislation announced by the government, but they moved it ahead and broadened the theme to support the protests sweeping across Turkey in support of human rights, democracy and the preservation of Gezi Park in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. By 17 June, all five major trade unions and professional organisations, DISK, KESK, TMMOB, TTB and TDB, have joined a general strike calling for an end to the violence.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/general-strike-in-turkey ...
http://theindependent.ca/2013/06/07/marching-to-taksim-square/
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.