Labor union DİSK elects its first female chair

ISTANBUL

Arzu Çerkezoğlu has become the first ever female chair of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK).

Çerkezoğlu previously served as the first woman secretary general of the leftist union, which was established in 1967.

She replaced Kani Beko after he quit the post to run on ticket of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the June 24 snap election.

DİSK, one of Turkey’s biggest labor unions, announced the election of Çerkezoğlu on May 29.

She was born in 1969 in the eastern Black Sea province of Artvin and studied at Istanbul University’s Medical School before starting to work as a physician in 1994.

The union is one of Turkey’s biggest, with a total of 149,197 members according to data from the Labor and Social Security Ministry.

The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş) is the largest union in the country with more than 900,000 members, followed by Hak-İş which has 615,000 members.