Employers' Union Declares Lockout as 130 Thousand Metal Industry Workers Decide to Go on Strike

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After 130 thousand workers in the metal industry decided to go on strike due to the deadlock in collective agreement negotiations, the Turkish Employers'​ Association of Metal Industries (MESS) has declared a lockout.

While members of the MESS today (January 22) began to inform the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP), the exact date of the lockout has yet to be announced.

Turkish Metal Trade Union (Türk Metal), the United Metal Workers' Union (Birleşik Metal-İş), and the Özçelik Labor Union have been negotiating with the MESS in the name of the workers. 110 thousand of the workers are members of the Türk Metal.

In the collective agreement negotiations that began on October 7, 2019, workers' and employers' unions agreed on 44 articles but failed to reach an agreement on 64 articles in two regulations, Türk Metal Pevrul Kavlak informed.

While the employers offered a 6.05 percent increase for the first six months of the year, the workers' unions demanded a 34 percent increase for the same period.

Thousands of metal industry workers from different cities held a rally on in the northwestern Bursa province Sunday (January 19), three days after the unions announced the strike.

Throughout the negotiations, the MESS twice increased its raise offer, first to 8 percent, then to 10 percent. "Although the inflation rate is 6 percent in this period, we increase our salary raise offer to 10 percent. If the costs increase rapidly and at a high rate, we lose our power against the countries we compete with. We expect a solution-oriented approach from labor unions to ensure reconciliation by preserving work peace and to prevent stagnation in production," it said in a statement. (SO/VK)