Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has halted a planned miners’ strike in four provinces for 60 days, citing national security concerns, Turkish media reported.
The decision, published on Thursday morning in the Official Gazette, covers four operations of Eti Maden Enterprises in Ankara, Balıkesir, Eskişehir and Kütahya. The strike was expected to begin on Friday with the participation of more than 2,000 workers.
Eti Maden is a Turkish state-owned mining and chemicals company focusing on borate products. It is the only organization that is legally allowed to mine borate minerals in Turkey, a country that possesses 72 percent of the world’s known deposits.
Earlier this week Turkey’s largest labor confederation, the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÜRK-İŞ), announced a series of strikes after failing to reach a deal with government employers over wage increases for 600,000 public sector workers for 2025 and 2026.
TÜRK-İŞ said the decision follows more than seven months of deadlocked talks with the Turkish Heavy Industry and Service Sector Public Employers Union (TÜHİS), which represents the government and public employers in negotiations. Union leaders cited growing frustration with what they described as disrespectful wage proposals amid high inflation and rising poverty.
Strike notices were posted at nearly 500 workplaces, with more expected in the coming days, including at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Finance Ministry and several universities. The first work stoppages were set to begin at Eti Maden on August 1, followed by coal mines in Zonguldak province on August 2.
Following Erdoğan’s decision, Turkish unions voiced strong opposition, accusing the government of violating workers’ constitutional right to strike on the pretext of “national security.”
Erinç Sağkan, chairman of the Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), in a social media post said, “We are witnessing the disregard of Constitutional Court rulings in almost every field. In its 2015 decision regarding the Glass Workers Union (Kristal-İş), the Constitutional Court clearly said that the justification of national security cannot be used to postpone strikes without a concrete basis. The court reiterated the same point in its decision concerning the United Metal Workers Union (Birleşik Metal-İş). However, since then, 14 more strikes have been postponed, once again citing vague claims that ‘national security was threatened,’ without offering any concrete explanation. This practice clearly violates the right to unionize, which is guaranteed under Article 51 of the constitution.”
Workers have launched a social media campaign under the hashtag “The right to strike is a universal right” in protest of the president’s decision.
