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20 January, 2012
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) disagrees with a decree issued by the Government of Northern Cyprus last night that effectively blocks a legitimate strike in the electricity sector by EL-SEN, ICEM’s affiliated Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers’ Trade Union.
EL-SEN launched the indefinite strike on the morning of 19 January over the government’s draft bill to privatize the Turkish Electricity Authority (KIB-TEK). According to Article 16 of Collective Agreements and Strikes of Northern Cyprus, the government can suspend any strike for a 60-day period if it deems that the strike endangers the “essential works” of the country. After such suspension, the strike can continue but the government then has the option to postpone it again since the law allows the government to declare the strike illegal twice in a year.
The ICEM considers the Northern Cypriot law as running opposite to norms contained in internationally recognized standards regarding the right to strike.
“We are very familiar with such anti-worker, anti-trade union practices in Turkey and now the same holds true in Northern Cyprus,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “Postponing a strike is in effect to ban one.”
Although EL-SEN abided by last night’s decree issued by the Northern Cypriot Council of Ministers, the union and its members will stay off their jobs as democratic right of civil disobedience. The ICEM communicated its support of that decision to EL-SEN President Tuluy Kalyoncu today. A similar strike by the telecommunications union TEL-SEN that began at the same time on 19 January continues.
EL-SEN and ICEM believe the state-owned utility KIB-TEK is sustainable and can be transformed into a viable public utility with a more efficient management. The ICEM also believes that the Northern Cypriot government must engage more fully with EL-SEN and other stakeholders before pushing forward legislation to privatize KIB-TEK.
Before the strike, ICEM had sent a letter to Prime Minister Irsen Küçük urging the government to withdraw the draft privatization bill. The ICEM sent a second letter today, 20 January, to the Prime Minister protesting the Cabinet of Ministers decree last night.
The ICEM is a Geneva-based Global Union Federation representing 20 million workers through 255 trade unions in 94 countries.
For further information, contact ICEM Information
Officer Dick Blin, [email protected], +41 22 304 1842, or +41 79 734 8994.