Union disunity over case

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Members of the three great trade union confederations, Türk İş, KESK and DİSK, gathered yesterday in the Anatolian-side district of Kadıköy under the title, "We will not pay the cost of the crisis: United Struggle Against Unemployment and Poverty." Members of Türk Metal Sen trade union, part of Türk İş, gathered in front of the platform where the speeches would be held.

They started chanting, "Where Mustafa Özbek is, we are there, too," reported the private news channel NTV.

Özbek, leader of the Türk Metal Sen, was arrested last month under the Ergenekon case, which officially started when police discovered 27 grenades in a shanty house belonging to a retired noncommissioned officer in Istanbul in June 2007. Prosecutors have alleged there is a secret ultra-nationalist group made up of retired and active military officers, writers, unionists and journalists who want to spread nationalist violence and overthrow the government by provoking a coup.

The demonstration’s organizing committee warned the workers to stop chanting the slogan but, meanwhile, members of Birleşik Metal İş trade union, part of DİSK, unfurled a banner that said, "Traitor Mustafa Özbek will pay." Workers then attacked each other with the banners’ plastic sticks, but there was a police barrier between the two groups. Police escorted Türk Metal Sen members out of the demonstration area.