General strike in Turkey

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

ISTANBUL, Sept 26 (Reuter) - A strike by more than 250,000 Turkish public
sector workers was poised to enter its second week on Tuesday and union
leaders threatened to keep up the pressure until the government met the pay
demands.

"We now have the largest trade union strike in Turkey's history and we expect
political parties and the government to take note," Yildirim Koc, adviser to
the president of the Turk-Is labour confederation, told Reuters.

The strike comes as Prime Minister Tansu Ciller struggles to put together a new
coalition following the collapse of the government last week. She has offered
the junior partner post to the conservative Motherland Party.

Workers in leather and textile factories were scheduled to join the nationwide
strike over the next two days, with the total number of strikers expected to
hit almost 400,000 by mid-October, the Turk-Is labour confederation said.

Turk-Is called the strike on September 20 to protest the government's pay rise
offer of an average 5.4 percent for the year. The average pre-tax salary for a
public sector worker is 18.5 million TL ($381).

The government has said it cannot afford to offer the workers more because of
an austerity programme put into effect last year to bring down spiralling
inflation, cut the budget deficit and speed-up privatisation.

Union officials say the wide effects of the strike may not be felt for a few
weeks, when the idling of maintenance workers for the railways or highways
starts to effect repairs and construction.

The exporters' board warned the shutdown on Monday of the country's main ports
by the dockworkers' strike could threaten one-fifth of the estimated $1.5
billion goods exported monthly while fears of a sugar shortage are high because
of the closure of 25 processing plants.

Union leaders say they will not call the workers back to the shop floors until
Ankara makes an offer that would at least cover inflation. Inflation is
expected to be about 70 percent in 1995.

By Jim Bodgener

Knight-Ridder

Istanbul--Sep 26--Turkey neared closer to a potential sugar crisis today as a
political stand-off deepened over a sugar workers' strike against a government
pay offer.

Turkey's Trade and Industry Minister Hasan Akyol claimed authority to settle
the workers' claim against attempts by the country's Prime Minister Tansu
Ciller to suspend the strike by decree, reported the semi-official Anatolia
newsagency.

The stoppage is at the cutting edge of a widespread strike by public sector
workers starting Sep 20, the day that the conservative Ciller's weak coalition
government collapsed.

Akyol is from the social democrat Republican Peoples Party (CHP), whose newly
elected leader Deniz Baykal withdrew its junior partnership from the coalition
over deep economic and social policy divisions with the premier, including
workers' conditions.

At the weekend, Akyol claimed the country had only around 4 days of sugar
stocks left, which might necessitate more imports. Today he said state Turkiye
Seker Fabrikalari (Turkseker) had stocks of 35,000 tonnes, but this could not
be sold because of the strike, reported Anatolia.

He also said this year's sugar beet crop with a potential yield of 1.2 million
tonnes of sugar would rot in the fields if not  harvested, Anatolia said.

The loss to Turkey from imports replacing domestic output would amount to 480
million US dlrs, rising to TL 77 trillion (1,604 million dlrs) overall,
including lost production and value-added, Akyol claimed.

Private processors could produce 3,000 tonnes daily, but this would not meet
the country's daily consumption of 6,000 tonnes, Akyol claimed. The private
processors took advantage yesterday by raising prices, he alleged.

Black market prices have already risen by around 50 pct above official
tariffs, he added, reported the newsagency. Within 30 days, the cost to Turkish
consumers would be more than meeting the annual pay increase of 37.5 pct
demanded by the 32,500 sugar industry workers, on strike against the
government's offer of 5.4 pct, the Minister noted.

One answer would be to completely lift import duties on sugar, a private trader
said. The government should not restore a 400-US-dlr per-tonne tax from Oct 1
as planned, he added.

To deter domestic price inflation arising from fears of shortages, the tax was
reduced to 100 dlrs per tonne in the summer to encourage private sector
imports.


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 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)