Signed sealed delivered: Living wage please
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Anatolia News Agency
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 24, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Postmen trek through rain, sleet and all sorts of weather for kilometers to deliver mail and on Feb. 25 a group of unionized postmen will begin a march to Ankara in the cold heart of winter to raise awareness of their working conditions.
The name for the march is "Look the postman is coming, delivering livable standards" and their demands are improved working conditions and a living wage. The postmen's march will begin from the Istanbul Sirkeci Postal, Telephone and Telegraph, or PTT, and the Diyarbakır Grand Post Office and end Feb 27 in front of the Ankara Ulus PTT headquarters. On stops along the way from both starting points, groups of postmen will stop to make public statements, talk to officials and highlight the reasons they are marching to the capital.
The postmen taking part in the march are members of the Media Communication and Postal Employees Union, or Haber- Sen. The group has a specific list of demands that include the ability to use vacation time, an end to compulsory work, stopping the 6 day work schedule, ensured work safety, the right to unionize, equality in work pay, payment of overtime wages and a living wage.
Union march
Haber-Sen President Ali Yılbaşı said the point of the march was to reiterate their demands because "we have not found the solution to our problems during our meetings." Haber- Sen has been active in meeting with PTT officials. Their last meeting on Jan. 19, 2009, in which the union listed their demands. If an agreement had been reached, they would not be marching said Yılbaşı. "It is not like we are fans of marching around in the snow and winter cold," he said.
The other major complaint that Haber- Senhas has with the current circumstances surrounding the Turkish PTT is that the union sees the postal service heading towards privatization; which Yılbaşı argues would be detrimental to the postal workers who already face troublesome working conditions. The PTT is not hiring new employees, which has been putting a strain on the workers who are not allowed to take their yearly holidays and are forced to work on Saturdays for normal wages as opposed to the overtime conditions stipulated by their contracts.
The work conditions also leave much be desired, according to Yılbaşı. He recently lost four friends on duty and that Turkish postmen had been robbed of approximately 2.8 million Turkish lira through muggings. What makes matters worse argued Yılbaşı, was that the PTT had put blame on the postal worker as victims of the muggings and has required payment from them for lost property. Yılbaşı said most of the 2.8 million Turkish liras had in fact been cut from the wages of workers.
In addition, the union has two court cases pending on the issue of the Haber- Sen fund, which raises money through union dues. The government recently distributed out 20 million lira out to workers and the remaining amount of approximately 250 million lira in the fund has been taken by the government, according to Yılbaşı.
The postmen taking part in the march are members of the Media Communication and Postal Employees Union, or Haber- Sen. The group has a specific list of demands that include the ability to use vacation time, an end to compulsory work, stopping the 6 day work schedule, ensured work safety, the right to unionize, equality in work pay, payment of overtime wages and a living wage.
Union march
Haber-Sen President Ali Yılbaşı said the point of the march was to reiterate their demands because "we have not found the solution to our problems during our meetings." Haber- Sen has been active in meeting with PTT officials. Their last meeting on Jan. 19, 2009, in which the union listed their demands. If an agreement had been reached, they would not be marching said Yılbaşı. "It is not like we are fans of marching around in the snow and winter cold," he said.
The other major complaint that Haber- Senhas has with the current circumstances surrounding the Turkish PTT is that the union sees the postal service heading towards privatization; which Yılbaşı argues would be detrimental to the postal workers who already face troublesome working conditions. The PTT is not hiring new employees, which has been putting a strain on the workers who are not allowed to take their yearly holidays and are forced to work on Saturdays for normal wages as opposed to the overtime conditions stipulated by their contracts.
The work conditions also leave much be desired, according to Yılbaşı. He recently lost four friends on duty and that Turkish postmen had been robbed of approximately 2.8 million Turkish lira through muggings. What makes matters worse argued Yılbaşı, was that the PTT had put blame on the postal worker as victims of the muggings and has required payment from them for lost property. Yılbaşı said most of the 2.8 million Turkish liras had in fact been cut from the wages of workers.
In addition, the union has two court cases pending on the issue of the Haber- Sen fund, which raises money through union dues. The government recently distributed out 20 million lira out to workers and the remaining amount of approximately 250 million lira in the fund has been taken by the government, according to Yılbaşı.