23 January, 2012
The Northern Cypriot state electric company, KIB-TEK, has begun importing workers from the Turkey-based energy company AKSA to break the civil disobedience actions of members of ICEM affiliate EL-SEN, the Turkish Electricity Authority of Cyprus Workers’ Trade Union. That started on 20 January, just hours after EL-SEN had abided by a Council of Ministers decree to halt a day-long strike.
But utility workers then reverted to a stay-at-home strategy as a democratic sign of civil disobedience.
The workers from AKSA, nonetheless, were given a police escort as they arrived in the northern part of the island and were taken to the main Teknecik power plant near the village of Klepini. EL-SEN undertook strike action in the morning of 19 January and the government’s decree banning the strike came late that evening.
The strike and subsequent protest are over the government’s draft bill to privatize the Turkish Electricity Authority (KIB-TEK). EL-SEN and its members strongly believe that the government has failed to consult the union and other stakeholders before pushing forth the draft legislation. The union will also conduct a mass rally in Nicosia on 30 January.
The ICEM has stepped in to support EL-SEN and opposes the rush to privatisation. In an ICEM news release issued on 20 January, the Global Union Federation said it disagreed with the government of Northern Cyprus’s decree, stating Northern Cypriot law to ban a strike runs counter to internationally recognised 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.”
Under Article 16 of Collective Agreements and Strikes of Northern Cyprus, the government can suspend a 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.
EL-SEN President Tuluy Kalyoncu
EL-SEN President Tuluy Kalyoncu said the move to import replacement workers was the wrong one. In a news report on 21 January, he said, “Our fight is a worthy one; our community’s survival depends on it. They think they can resolve this by bringing people in from abroad. It might work in the short term, but in the long term it will fail.”