Hava-İş warns of THY strike danger

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The Hava-İş union has announced that it has failed to reach an agreement with Turkish Airlines (THY) on a collective labor contract, warning prominent business organizations that a THY workers’ strike would affect many fields including tourism and foreign trade.

Hava-İş has sent letters to the heads of TÜSİAD, MÜSİAD, TUSKON, TİSK, TURSAB, TESK, and TİB, in order to inform them in advance about the possible troubles that may be caused by strike action, and also to suggest a basis on which they could contribute to a solution. The Association of Travel Agencies in Turkey (TURSAB) has replied that it could assume duties during the resolution process, adding that they believed the two sides would solve it on the table by recognizing the rights of workers.

After the Hava-İş union, which took the decision for a strike by THY workers on April 9, announced that it would give THY time before commencing the actual strike, THY proposed continued negotiations on April 10. Hava-İş said THY had not accepted its offer to start talks for a collective labor contract in order to solve disagreements, including the rehiring of 305 fired workers.

The union said in the letter they could not agree on any articles of the collective labor contract with THY, adding that the decision to strike, which is their constitutional right, would be unavoidable if the attitude of the THY administration did not change. However, they stressed that they were still open to dialog to find a resolution of the conflict.

THY workers are legally able to start their strike, under the condition that they notified six days ago, until May 20, Hava-İş Secretary-General Mustafa Yağcı said yesterday. Yağcı noted that they may not wait until this date if any positive progress was not made.

THY had announced in June that it would not rehire the 305 workers who were laid off after participating in labor action to protest a piece of draft legislation banning strikes and lockouts in the aviation industry on May 29, 2012. Hava-İş members conducted a slowdown strike on May 29. Despite the objections, the draft law came into effect on June 3. While there are around 15,800 workers in THY, 14,000 of them are members of the union, according to Hava-İş.