Istanbul DISK was the third labor federation (of 6 or 7 in Turkey) that we visited a short metro stop away from Tiksim, then a walk, and then a climb, but all that is welcome to beautiful Istanbul. We ended up getting to meet with the General Secretary of the entire federation, who was also …
Category: Personal Writings
Chambers
Ankara The bias runs deep. When an organizer hears the word “chamber” the immediate assumption is that one is talking about a business apologist group of some kind. In Turkey a chamber is one of the professional associations created to get around unions but to keep the engineers, doctors, dentists, and others on program. Originally the …
Unions in Turkey
Ankara Not easy figuring out the way unions are put together in Turkey, but after several meetings, it seems possible to sketch out the basic process. We talked an organizer for the printing and packaging union at some length, then met with the executive committee for a unionized and recently formed cooperative printing operations, …