Turkish general strike, 4 February

This video says about itself:

Tekel workers demonstrating in downtown Ankara, Turkey December 2009.

From Turkish Weekly:

Labour Unions to Go On A One-Day Nation Wide Strike in Support of Tekel Workers

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Turkey’s Major Confederation of Labour and Public Servant Unions are going on a one day nation wide strike on January 4 to extend support to Tekel ([tobacco and alcohol] Monopoly) workers in protest of the government.

The negotiations between, Turk-Is, Turkey’s largest federation of labour unions –representing the Tekel workers— and the government have failed, when Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer failed to satisfy Turk-Is.

After the break up of negotiations, Turkey’s major confederation of Labour and Civil Servant unions, Turk-Is Hak-Is, DISK, Memur-Sen, Turkiye, Kamu-Sen and KESK, got together Tuesday and decided to go on a one day nation wide strike to warn the government.

Workers from the privatised TEKEL (Monopoly) factories who have been struggling for 50 days at a sit-down strike in Ankara to secure a transfer to other public institutions along with their employee rights and called for a general strike, at a recent mass rally in Ankara.

Last week, following a meeting with Turk-Is Chairman Mustafa Kumlu, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered two of his ministers to work on the issue and come up with a solution to the situation.

Tekel workers who had been on a hunger strike, gave a break and decided to wait for the government’s offer.

Kumlu said Turk-Is wanted the government to reemploy Turk-Is workers at other public institutions, noting that negotiations broke down due to a disagreement over how the workers would be reemployed.

The government offers to reemploy Tekel workers under 4-C contract, which means a partial loss of rights for the workers, the initial cause of the protests.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week visited the three North African capitals that have seen the ouster of longstanding regimes—Cairo, Tunis and Tripoli: here.