Strikers Return to Work - For now

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

23640; Fri, 20 Oct 1995 21:46:36 -0800


      ANKARA, Oct 18 (Reuter) - Striking public employees ordered back to
work by Prime Minister Tansu Ciller returned to the workplace on Wednesday,
but may walk out again if Turkey's right-left coalition-in-waiting cannot
solve a pay dispute.

    ``Our workers returned to work today. Union leaders will hold a meeting
tomorrow to evaluate the situation,'' Yildirim Koc, a senior official at
labour confederation Turk-Is, told Reuters.

    Koc said the prospect of the social democrats re-joining in coalition
with Ciller's conservative party gave workers hope for a just resolution to a
pay strike begun on September 20, the same day the governing coalition split
up.

    ``If things do not go well, the strike may restart,'' Koc said.

    Ciller on Tuesday ordered some 113,000 striking workers to return to work
immediately, saying the strike was ``disrupting health and national
security.''

    The decree covers workers in ports, railways, state sugar plants and
those in the oil, metal, forestry and paper sectors. About 240,000 striking
public workers in other sectors, such as non-sugar agriculture, were not
covered by the decree.

    Turkish governments are empowered to suspend strikes in key sectors for
60 days at a time.

    The strike, over an initial government pay offer of 5.4 percent for 1995
with inflation at 70 percent, helped Ciller lose a vote of confidence in her
10-day old minority government on Sunday and forced her back to talking with
her old partners.

    President Suleyman Demirel appointed Ciller premier again late on Tuesday
with the proviso that she realign with the social democrats and call
elections as soon as possible.


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