El-Sen call off strike
AN INDEFINITE strike by the Cyprus Turkish Electricity Corporation Workers Union (El-Sen) launched on Monday was called off just two days later following a protest outside the Cyprus Turkish Electricity Corporation (Kıb-Tek) and the Economy and Energy Ministry.
El-Sen members gathered outside Kıb-Tek headquarters in Lefkoşa on Wednesday morning and lit a fire in the road. Police teams and fire trucks also came to the protest site. Tensions increased when the protesters who marched to the ministry tried to enter the building but police prevented them.
The demonstrators held placards and banners that said “No to privatisation”, “We will win by resisting, not by begging”, “Kıb-Tek is the last fortress, our war for survival will not end” and “No to Aksa”, the private energy company that operates the TRNC’s Kalecik power station.
There were also chants calling for Economy and
Energy Ministry Erhan Arıklı to resign.
Following the statements made during the protest, ElSen leader Kubilay Özkıraç left “Bayram sweets” at the ministry’s door.
The demonstrators threw water bottles at the ministry. Mr Özkıraç said: “We will not allow Erhan Arıklı to consume Kıb-Tek or the public.”
However, after the protest, the parties came together at Kıb-Tek and reached a compromise.
El-Sen and the Kıb-Tek board of directors signed a protocol with six “additional articles” including making investments with the “Collective Bargaining Agreement”, reversing price hikes, realising additional recruitment and collecting all of Kıb-Tek’s “receivables”.
Announcing the strike action on Monday, Mr Özkıraç had said: “We have made the decision to go on a corporation-wide strike in order to say ‘stop’ to the indifferent and apathetic attitude of the rulers of the country.”
He explained in a statement
to the press that the reasons for the strike are that Dr Arıklı is planning to raise electricity rates, KıbTek has no “materials” left, the process of buying fuel oil, and the government’s attitude on a collective bargaining agreement.
“While Kıb-Tek has no materials left in its warehouses, not even meters,
Erhan Arıklı is working to raise electricity rates by 15 to 20 percent,” he said.
Referring to the cancellation of the annual fuel oil tender, Mr Özkıraç claimed that the tender had been “diluted” by “those with shady relationships” in order to “earn someone income”.
He stated that 21,000 tonnes of fuel which was purchased for “urgent needs” will last until the end of the month while a tender for a year’s supply of fuel oil “could take three months to be completed”.
Mr Özkıraç also claimed that the company trying to sell the fuel to Kıb-Tek had created losses to Kıb-Tek in the past of “$50 to $60 million”.
An “unjust payment” was made to Aksa which Mr
Özkıraç said has a “purchase guarantee agreement” with Kıb-Tek.
“[Kıb-Tek] is indebted every month because of this payment [to Aksa] so a new loan tender was opened for 150 million TL,” he said.
El-Sen general secretary Ersan Kaşif claimed that Kıb-Tek had no electricity meters in stock and that workers were taking meters from vacant properties to install in new properties.
Kıb-Tek head Turan Büyükyılmaz, speaking before the strike was called off, said that “no-one has the right to leave the Turkish Cypriot people without electricity”.
“We explained to [Mr Özkıraç] that this is not legal and that power plants must continue to function,” he said.
“When we made this statement, he accused us of ‘fascism and corruption’. We asked Özkıraç to remain calm, but even though we expressed that our actions are legal, he tried to provoke us by making accusations.
“He stated that if we do not sign the collective bargaining agreement by Friday, they will ‘not stop the strike and it will only intensify’. . . However, Özkıraç is trying to do this through imposition.
“The most interesting thing is that among the reasons for the strike, there was no item called the ‘Collective Bargaining Agreement’. After all the reasons he put forward had been refuted, he had to find something to justify himself before the public. . . The collective bargaining agreement has not been discussed for 17 months.”