1UpInfo - A Portal with a Difference

Home     Contact Us    Disclaimer     Privacy     Links Directory

You are here >1UpInfo > Country Study & Country Guide > Turkey
 

-- Country Study & A Country Guide --

 


Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Afghanistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Albania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Algeria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Angola

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Armenia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Austria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Azerbaijan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bahrain

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bangladesh

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Belarus

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Belize

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bhutan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bolivia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Brazil

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Bulgaria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Cambodia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Chad

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Chile

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. China

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Colombia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Caribbean Islands

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Comoros

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Cyprus

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Czechoslovakia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Dominican Republic

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Ecuador

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Egypt

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. El Salvador

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Estonia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Ethiopia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Finland

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Georgia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Germany

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Germany (East)

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Ghana

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Guyana

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Haiti

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Honduras

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Hungary

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. India

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Indonesia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Iran

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Iraq

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Israel

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Cote d'Ivoire

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Japan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Jordan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Kazakhstan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Kuwait

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Kyrgyzstan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Latvia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Laos

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Lebanon

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Libya

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Lithuania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Macau

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Madagascar

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Maldives

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mauritania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mauritius

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mexico

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Moldova

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Mongolia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Nepal

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Nicaragua

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Nigeria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. North Korea

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Oman

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Pakistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Panama

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Paraguay

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Peru

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Philippines

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Poland

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Portugal

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Qatar

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Romania

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Russia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Saudi Arabia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Seychelles

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Singapore

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Somalia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. South Africa

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. South Korea

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Soviet Union [USSR]

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Spain

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Sri Lanka

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Sudan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Syria

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Tajikistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Thailand

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Turkmenistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Turkey

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Uganda

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. United Arab Emirates

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Uruguay

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Uzbekistan

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Venezuela

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Vietnam

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Yugoslavia

Turkey - Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey. Zaire


Site Partners

1UpHealth.com
1UpTravel.com

Country Study & Country Guide for Turkey

Turkey

Labor

The legalization of unions under the Trade Union Law of 1947 paved the way for the slow but steady growth of a labor movement that evolved parallel to multiparty politics. The principal goal of unions as defined in the 1947 law was to seek the betterm ent of members' social and economic status. Unions were denied the right to strike or to engage in political activity, either on their own or as vehicles of political parties. In spite of these limitations, labor unions gradually acquired political influe nce. The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türkiye Isçi Sendikalari Konfederasyonu--Türk-Is) was founded in 1952 at government instigation to serve as an independent umbrella group. Under the tutelage of Türk-Is, labor evolved into a well-organized i nterest group; the organization also functioned as an agency through which the government could restrain workers' wage demands (see Human Resources and Trade Unions, ch. 3). The labor movement expanded in the liberalized political climate of the 1960s, es pecially after a union law enacted in 1963 legalized strikes, lockouts, and collective bargaining. However, unions were forbidden to give "material aid" to political parties. Political parties also were barred from giving money to unions or forming separa te labor organizations.

The labor movement did not escape the politicization and polarization that characterized the 1960s and 1970s. Workers' dissatisfaction with Türk-Is as the representative of their interests led to the founding in 1967 of the Confederation of Revolution ary Workers' Trade Unions of Turkey (Türkiye Devrimçi Isçi Sendikalari Konfederasyonu--DISK). DISK leaders were militants who had been expelled from Türk-Is after supporting a glass factory strike opposed by the Türk-Is bureaucracy. Both Türk-Is and the g overnment tried to suppress DISK, whose independence was perceived as a threat. However, a spontaneous, two-day, pro-DISK demonstration by thousands of laborers in Istanbul--the first mass political action by Turkish workers--forced the government in June 1970 to back away from a bill to abolish DISK. For the next ten years, DISK remained an independent organization promoting the rights of workers and supporting their job actions, including one major general strike in 1977 that led to the temporary abolit ion of the military-run State Security Courts. By 1980 about 500,000 workers belonged to unions affiliated with DISK.

Following the 1980 coup, the military regime banned independent union activity, suspended DISK, and arrested hundreds of its activists, including all its top officials. The government prosecuted DISK leaders, as well as more than 1,000 other trade uni onists arrested in 1980, in a series of trials that did not end until December 1986. The secretary general of DISK and more than 250 other defendants received jail sentences of up to ten years. Meanwhile, the more complaisant Türk-Is, which had not been o utlawed after the coup, worked with the military government and its successors to depoliticize workers. As the government-approved labor union confederation, Türk-Is benefited from new laws pertaining to unions. For example, the 1982 constitution permits unions but prohibits them from engaging in political activity, thus effectively denying them the right to petition political representatives. As in the days prior to 1967, unions must depend upon Türk-Is to mediate between them and the government. A law i ssued in May 1983 restricts the establishment of new trade unions and places constraints on the right to strike by banning politically motivated strikes, general strikes, solidarity strikes, and any strike considered a threat to society or national well-b eing.

The government's restrictions on union activity tended to demoralize workers, who generally remained passive for more than five years after the 1980 coup. However, beginning in 1986 unions experienced a resurgence. In February several thousand workers angered by pension cutbacks held a rally--labor's first such demonstration since the 1980 coup--to protest high living costs, low wages, high unemployment, and restrictions on union organizing and collective bargaining. A subsequent rally in June drew an estimated 50,000 demonstrators. Since 1986 workers have conducted numerous rallies, small strikes, work slowdowns, and other manifestations of dissatisfaction. By the early 1990s, an average of 120,000 workers per year were involved in strike activity. T ürk-Is has mediated these incidents by bailing detained workers out of prison, negotiating compromise wage increase packages, and encouraging cooperative labor-management relations.

Business

The Turkish Trade Association (Türkiye Odalar Birligi--TOB) has represented the interests of merchants, industrialists, and commodity brokers since 1952. In the 1960s and 1970s, new associations representing the interests of private industry challenged TOB's position as the authoritative representative of business in Turkey. Subsequently the organization came to be identified primarily with small and medium-sized firms. The Union of Chambers of Industry was founded in 1967 as a coalition within TOB by industrialists seeking to reorganize the confederation. The Union of Chambers of Industry was unable to acquire independent status but achieved improved coordination of industrialists' demands. By setting up study groups, the union was able to pool resear ch on development projects. In addition, the union organized regional Chambers of Industry within TOB.

Business interests also were served by employers' associations that dealt primarily with labor-management relations and were united under the aegis of the Turkish Confederation of Employers' Unions (Türkiye Isveren Sendikalari Konfederasyonu--TISK). T his confederation was established in 1961, largely in response to the development of trade unions, and was considered the most militant of employers' associations. By the end of 1980, TISK claimed 106 affiliated groups with a total membership of 9,183 emp loyers. Although membership in TISK was open to employers in both the private and public sectors, it was primarily an organization of private-sector employers. When the military regime took power in 1980, labor union activities were suspended, but TISK wa s allowed to continue functioning. Employers supported the subsequent restrictive labor legislation, which appeared to be in accord with TISK proposals.

Another representative of business interests, the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (Türk Sanayiçileri ve Is Adamlari Dernegi--TÜSIAD), was founded by the leaders of some of Turkey's largest business and industrial enterprises soon after the March 1971 military coup. Its aim was to improve the image of business and to stress its concern with social issues. At the same time, TÜSIAD favored granting greater control of investment capital to the large industrialists at the expense of t he smaller merchant and banking interests usually supported by TOB. TÜSIAD's leaders also were concerned with the widening economic inequalities between regions and social classes and opposed TISK's extreme antilabor policies, which they perceived as jeop ardizing Turkey's chances of entering the European Union.

Data as of January 1995

Turkey - TABLE OF CONTENTS


Go Up - Top of Page


Print this Page

Content on this web site is provided for informational purposes only. We accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information published on this site. We encourage you to verify any critical information with the relevant authorities.

Information Courtesy: The Library of Congress - Country Studies

Home     Contact Us    Disclaimer     Privacy     Links Directory

©1UpInfo All Rights reserved. Site best viewed in 800 x 600 resolution.