Children Speak Out
The children of the public workers also gathered at the Mersin branch of the Union of Education, Science and Culture Workers (Egitim-Sen) with their mothers and fathers.
The children held balloons that had "I Want Nurseries," and "I Want Money for Food," written on them. The children also held banners that said, "I Want to Live in a Modern and Clean Society," "I am Drinking my Tears instead of Milk for 30 days," "I want a Nursery not War."
"This is our democratic right"
Unsal Yildiz, the spokesman for the Mersin branch platform of KESK, on Friday, said that nurseries, maternity rights, and government aid for children and families, were among the things they demanded during the collective talks held with the government. Yildiz made a list of their demands:
* Taking into account the standards of the International Labour Organization, the maternity leave should be brought up from nine to 18 weeks; six weeks before, and 12 weeks after birth.
* The mothers and fathers should be granted a year of unpaid leave right to take up in turns.
* Most workplaces don't have nurseries. The price for private nurseries on the other hand, is equal to a month's salary of a public worker. Excluding kids 0-6, there should be nurseries at the workplaces with 50 or more workers. For workplaces with less than 50 laborers, there should be a nursery in the area.
* The nurseries should be free and sustained in accordance with the statutes by the Foundation of Social Services and Child Protection.
* The family aid should be increased from 22 million 855 thousand (about U.S.D 15) to 188 million Turkish lira (about USD 115) and birth aid should be increased from 2 million 448 thousand (about USD 1.5) to 180 million Turkish lira (about U.S.D 114).
A bottle of milk is not enough for children
The children reiterated their parents' demands:
* Ozan Ozsaltuk (9): With the 1 million 600 thousand Turkish lira (about U.S.D 1) of child aid granted by the government, we can only buy a bottle of milk. However, a month of necessities of a child does not comprise of just a bottle of milk. Apart from health care, proper nutrition and school necessities, every child has the right to go to the movies or the theater once a month and read a magazine.
* Erkin Akpinar (9): We demand free education. They ask for money at school registrations. They also ask for money for cleaning spending and school equipment. We don't have enough money for everything. And we also demand free health care. Because some sick people are not operated because they don't have money. And they die in front of the hospital. That's why I want health care to be free.
Unsal Yildiz called on the Cabinet of Ministers to take KESK's demands seriously. Yildiz said that they would collectively burn their wage slips in every province on Monday September 16, if their demands were not met. (BB/EA/NM)