Wave of industrial action in the north
A WAVE of industrial action aimed at blocking Ankara’s economic austerity measures is underway in the north.
Calling itself the Trades Union Platform, a group of 28 Turkish Cypriot unions and NGOs have launched a series of strikes that began on Tuesday and will culminate in a mass demonstration on January 28.
As the first stage of the action, the unions have closed three of the largest schools in the north of Nicosia, along with the land registry offce. They remained closed yesterday, and were joined by the telecoms offices in Kyrenia and Morphou. More limited strikes are expected to follow.
Argument has long been raging between public sector workers and the authorities over implementation of Ankara-inspired austerity measures. The ruling National Unity Party (UBP) insists there will be no U-turn from a package devised by the Turkish government and the former Republican Turkish Party (CTP) administration. Efforts by the CTP to implement the same package was one of the main reasons behind its ousting in ‘parliamentary’ elections in 2009.
On Tuesday, negotiations between the authorities and the Platform collapsed after both sides refused to back down.
Speaking after the meeting, head of the Teachers Union (KTOS) Sener Elcil said the industrial action manifested a “fight for survival for the Turkish Cypriot people against poverty and forced emigration”.
The authorities however insist they have no choice but to implement austerity measures, which involve the sell-off of ‘state-run’ corporations and the long-term shrinkage of the public sector.
“It is not possible to revoke this package,” head of the ‘ministry of labour and social services’ Turkay Tokel said, adding that he had done all he could to take the unions’ interests into account. He concluded however that “unavoidable sacrifices” on the part of public sector workers would need to be made. Union calls for a freeze on the granting of ‘TRNC’ citizenship to mainlanders and a clampdown on unregistered immigrant workers were being upheld, he said.
“We are all in the same boat, and this boat will sink or float with all of us in it,” Tokel added, insisting that measures he began implementing 18 months ago were “beginning to bear fruit”.
Describing the Ankara-inspired package as a “destruction package”, head of the Public Sector Workers Union (KTAMS) Ahmet Kaptan said he believed the rally on January 28 would be “massive”.
“If they put 18 helicopters in the sky, they will not be able to count us all because the whole population will be there,” he said somewhat optimistically.
He added that the date of the rally marked the anniversary of a mass demonstration by Turkish Cypriots in 1958 against British colonial rule.
“The date is no coincidence”, he said.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/wave- ... h/20110113?
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