Defying the Presidential strike ban, United Metalworkers’ Union (Birlesik Metal-Is) members continue their strike. In early December 2024, Birlesik Metal-Is decided to go on strike in the workplaces of several companies in the transformer-production sector. A Presidential decree on 13 December banned strikes at MESS workplaces for national security reasons. IndustriALL Global and industriAll European Union condemned the ban, urging employers not to exploit this anti-democratic measure. Despite threats of dismissal without severance for participating in a so-called illegal strike, metal workers continued their action, asserting their fundamental right to strike and are already seeing results. On 23 December, Birlesik Metal-Is signed a new collective agreement with Hitachi and MESS covering four different workplaces of the company with a 60% wage increase on average after a 20-day strike.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.