Council workers strike as the rubbish piles up
RUBBISH piled up on the streets of Gazimağusa after council workers launched a strike last Friday, saying they were owed nearly 4 million TL in unpaid wages.
The Gazimağusa Turkish General Labour Union, which called the strike, said municipality staff salaries and overtime have not been paid “in full and on time” while claiming that 32 new employees have been hired “when there is no need for them”.
During the strike, Gazimağusa Municipality personnel marched to the Memorial Roundabout, where they unfurled a banner.
Gazimağusa Turkish General Labour Union chairman Doğan Özüşen told reporters they had decided to strike “because of the municipality’s personnel recruitment and economic reasons”.
Mr Özüşen said workers were owed a total of 3,913,000TL, including 850,000TL for January wages and 14 months’ worth of overtime payments.
“While there is a financial problem, recruitment continues,” he said. “Just like us, these 32 people won’t receive a salary at the beginning of the month.”
Mr Özüşen noted that there were “no objections” to five of the 32 people being hired, who he said were employees of a sewage treatment plant run by a private company that had terminated its contract with Gazimağusa Municipality due to non-payment.
On Wednesday evening Mr Özüşen called off the strike after announcing that their “monetary problems have been solved”.
However, the effects of the strike were evident on the streets of Gazimağusa. The lack of bin collections in the town quickly led to them becoming full and overflowing.
The scenes and stenches of the overflowing bins prompted complaints from residents. Rubbish began to be collected on Wednesday night after the strike was ended.
Mr Özüşen apologised to Gazimağusa residents for the inconvenience caused, but said that staff had been facing “great difficulty” in trying to get by and often experience financial “insecurity”.
Mr Özüşen noted that the Gazimağusa Mayor, İsmail Arter, had seemed to vindicate the strike during talks on Tuesday, when he reportedly admitted that workers are worse off due to the higher cost of living.
Mr Özüşen confirmed that a 1.8 million TL “advance” had been allocated to pay temporary staff, the missing wages of permanent municipality workers, as well as some of their due overtime.
“We began our strike by saying that our problem is not only with [the lack of] payment, but that we also wish to solve the structural problems [within the municipality]. . . All parties agreed that our strike was justified,” he added.
Mr Özüşen also criticised the “mentality of borrowing” within Gazimağusa Municipality, speaking of how it should aim to “make savings” rather than “constantly borrowing and overspending” which he said “steals from the future”.
He also thanked those who supported the strike and members of the press who helped “make our voices heard”.