After a week-long strike that has brought municipal services in the city of Izmir – Turkey’s third largest city – including urban transport and rubbish collection to a near standstill , city hall workers have reached an agreement to end the strike on 4 June.
Turkish media reported that the strike, which has paralysed the most essential public services in this metropolitan city of 4.5 million inhabitants, has ended after the unions representing municipal workers and the municipality – governed by the metropolitan mayor Cemil Tugay, from the main Turkish opposition party – reached an agreement on the increase of their salaries, one of their main demands in the conflict.
According to published reports, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), one of the main workers’ unions in the country, has finally decided to accept what Mayor Cemil Tugay himself described as h is ‘last offer’; although the details have not been officially released, the Turkish press, citing sources close to the negotiations, claims that the proposal would include a wage increase of 30% as of 1 July, to which an additional 19% increase would be added as of 1 January 2026.
The previous offer made by the CHP-ruled municipality, which included a 29.16% pay rise for municipal employees from July and 10% from January next year, had been rejected by union representatives as insufficient.
The strike, in which some 23,000 Izmir municipality workers took part and which reached its 7th day on 4 June, had as its main demands both an increase in the salaries of municipal employees to compensate for the rise in prices due to inflation, and the elimination of wage differences between workers represented by different unions.
The strike had led to an almost complete collapse of municipal services , with interruptions in public transport and piles of rubbish piling up in the streets, to the point that the mayor of the city himself was seen helping to remove the accumulated rubbish in the streets.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
