Cablegate: Turkey: Civil Service Strike Looms November 25

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UNCLAS ANKARA 001680

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV AMGT MOPS ECON TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: CIVIL SERVICE STRIKE LOOMS NOVEMBER 25

REF: ANKARA 1562

1. Two of Turkey's three civil service labor union
confederations, KESK and KAMU-SEN, continue to make
preparations for a civil service strike on November 25 to
protest the lack of a legal framework for them to
collectively bargain or strike. The confederations still
cannot predict the impact of the strike.

2. Namzi Guzel, president of the Transportation Workers
Union, which is part of KAMU-SEN and is participating in the
strike, gave us his assessment on how transportation will be
affected. On air transportation, he said that his union
wrote letters to 200 airline companies warning that the union
plans a work stoppage on November 25. Guzel expects that
ground services and services to park planes at gates will be
impacted, but that the airline companies will probably take
measures to increase private sector staff to keep these
operating. He suspects that most flights probably will be
running behind schedule, though not canceled.

3. On rail transportation, Guzel said the industry is
completely organized, and he can confirm that "no trains"
will be running on that day. On maritime transportation and
ports, because Mersin port is privatized, the union will not
affect operations there. However, in all other ports cargo
transportation probably will be slowed but not brought to a
standstill. Passenger transportation by ships will not be
affected because that is not a public sector industry.

4. A representative from Kamu-Sen said that while they
cannot predict the overall impact of the strike, they
expected that the tax collection and public education (though
not private education) sectors will be completely halted.
Hospitals' emergency units and fire departments will not be
affected, we are being told, even though they are staffed by
public sector employees.

JEFFREY

"Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s
gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"

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