DAILY NEWS

SUSER worker sacked from municipal job in Erdoğan’s time: He has earned our curses

Çetin Karataş was sent packing along with 1200 workers four months after Tayyip Erdoğan took office at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

SUSER worker sacked from municipal job in Erdoğan’s time: He has earned our curses

Fırat TURGUT
İstanbul

President Tayyip Erdoğan has been taken to task for his words, “We did not deprive anyone of their posts, livelihoods and food. Playing with the livelihood of thousands of people can be accommodated neither under rights, nor the law, justice or humanity” in which he took a swipe at Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu at the Metropolitan Mayors Meeting. Recalling that, four months after becoming mayor, Erdoğan closed Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration-affiliated SUSER (Water Service), for which he worked, on the grounds that it was loss making, Çetin Karataş said, “They sent 1200 workers packing on one day. They earned our curses.”

Çetin Karataş started working for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on 15 August 1989, and says, “At that time the municipality was the SHP’s. I was in the water meter reading and billing section. Around 1200 workers worked at Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration-affiliated SUSER. Having received two weeks training, we got our work every day from Yenikapı and split up among the regions. When I first started the pay was low. A contract was made in 1991. At that time, all municipal workers’ wages and rights were improved, not just ours. Added to wages were bonuses four times a year, a clothing allowance, a fuel allowance… All these things were in place. We gradually started to unionize. We became members of Turkish Energy, Water and Gas Workers Union’s Istanbul No 4 Branch. With problems emerging at No 4 Branch, No 5 Branch was formed and we continued there.”

THEY DID NOT EVEN COMPLY WITH A CLAUSE IN THE CONTRACT

When the calendar turned to 27 March 1994, the new Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor was now Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Karataş gives the following description of what transpired: “We carried on working for four months. After four months, though, we 1200 workers were left unemployed. They said the company was making a loss and they were going to close it, and did so. Even though a clause was included in the contract that if the company was closed the workers would be distributed among the Metropolitan Municipality and Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration, this was not done. The workers were divided. Around 500 workers accepted immediately, signed and left. The union did not display much resolve, either. Following our dismissal, we requested a meeting with municipal administrators many times but they paid absolutely no attention to us. They just said the company was making a loss and they closed the company. Nothing else. After having been dismissed, we resisted for two weeks at Yenikapı, at the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration treatment plant there. The press came there once in a while but it was very low key. Star newspaper ran reports of corruption at the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration but didn’t write about us. There were Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration administrators at the place where we were resisting. Supervisors, regional managers. Nobody would deal with us. In those days, Hürriyet and Sabah newspapers were down Güneşli way. We went to their very doors with our representatives and asked them to report on us. And nobody came and spoke to us. We were all affected by this situation. There were those who separated from their wives and whose families split up. Everyone had an established set-up and this set-up was demolished.”

WORK ASSIGNED TO A PRIVATE COMPANY

Karataş relates that the meter reading work was then assigned to a private company. He says, “There was an office in Cevizlibağ. They accepted applications there. They wanted staff who knew the job. In the end, we would start in a job, the job we knew, and we went and applied. They called up some of us but didn’t call up most of the workers.”

Karataş listened to the speech Erdoğan made at the Metropolitan Mayors Meeting. He has the following to say: “The archives are there. There is the SESER example. 1200 people from our company alone. What it comes down to is you saying you were making a loss and giving the work to a private company. We know the system in Turkey. They said let the company earn rather than the workers earning. He deprived us of our jobs in his time as mayor, and now academics with decrees with the force of law and workers with trustees. And he has earned our curses.”

WHAT DID ERDOĞAN SAY?

Addressing the Metropolitan Mayors Meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan commented as follows, taking a swipe at Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu:

“Using a few bad examples, presuming they exist, as an excuse, playing with the livelihood of hundreds and thousands of people can be accommodated neither under rights, nor the law, justice or humanity. Neither politics nor service can be erected on the curses of people who have been sent packing and hurt and had their homes brought down on their heads. When I took office as Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor, I and we did not touch anyone who worked and was deserving of their position in terms of their acquired skills and enthusiasm. We did not deprive anyone of their posts, livelihoods and food. Putting each and every issue on the road to solution, we also patiently repaid our debts. We did not mess about with either staff or vehicles or anything else. We expect the same sensitivity of all our mayors.” 

(Translated by Tim DRAYTON)


The Latest