Turkish unions held two-hour strike to protest reform

Turk-Is Chairman Mustafa Kumlu said on Friday the unions will continue the demonstrations on the day that the parliament starts debating the bill if their demands are not met, while Turkish government criticized the warning strike.

Also, no flights took-off for two hours; teachers didn't join classes; doctors didn't take care of patients except emergencies, agencies reported. Local news agencies also attended the strike with the official Anatolian Agency suspended work between 10.15 a.m. and 10.30 and the private ANKA only published the stories related to the two-hour strike.      Â

Turkish television showed doctors and nurses joining the strike, and hospitals declining to provide services except in emergency cases. Hundreds of workers holding Turkish flags gathered in front of their work places in Ankara to chant slogans against the government and IMF. Workers said they wanted the social security reform to be abandoned completely.

"We hope the government gets the necessary message from these mature protests. We hope the government will put a basis for the necessary agreement and amend the social security reform bill in line with the realities of this country. Our aim is not to start a war but to solve the issue with calmness" he said in a speech to the workers.Â

The umbrella platform of Turkish unions, Emek Platform early this week decided to hold two hour warning strike on Friday and vowed to hold larger strike if their demands are not met.

Turkey's social security deficit exceeded 25 billion lira ($20 billion) in 2007, and officials warned it would reach nearly 30 billion lira this year if the reform is not passed. The long-delayed social security reform aims to cut this huge deficit and one of the conditions for the release of a 1.3 billion dollars IMF loan tranche. The bill, expected to be approved by the parliament later this month, gradually raises the retirement age of women and men to 65 (actually 58 and 60, respectively) and the number of days they have to work from 7,000 to 9,000.       Â

ERDOGAN COMMENTS

The labor unions and the opposition parties criticize the reform saying that it raises the threshold for workers to reach retirement to a very high level of 9,000 days. But the government says the current retirement ages of 44 for women and 48 for men are not sustainable and the existing system encourages early retirement.

The bill creates a new fund where future severance payments will be transferred and the money accumulating here will be used in private pension funds, another issue that the unions object. Workers will be paid severance payments only in the case of death or retirement but not lay-offs. The reform says workers will be paid severance payments only in the case of death or retirement but not lay-offs, creating potential conflict with the labor groups.    

 Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan labeled the protest as illegal. "Can you identify such action within a secular and social state structure? Such things should be negotiated on the table and they had already been negotiated" he told reportes in Ankara.

Finance Minsiter Kemal Unakitan defended the bill on Friday saying it is "an important reform that secures Turkey's future". "Not only are those in Turkey but also those who are abroad and interested in Turkey wondering whether Turkey can take this reform, therefore we have to fulfil this structural reform," Unakitan told reporters.