The Municipality of Konak, run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), called on residents not to leave their garbage in dumpsters after it failed to reach a deal with the labor union representing garbage collectors.
The workers began a strike on Wednesday after the talks collapsed, the latest in the province of Izmir where Konak is located. Earlier, garbage collectors held brief strikes when salary talks with district municipalities of Türkiye’s third-largest province collapsed, leading to sights of dumpsters overflowing with uncollected garbage and threatening public health.
Izmir is a stronghold of the CHP, which enjoyed unprecedented success in last year’s municipal elections across Türkiye. Yet, the city’s municipalities face criticism over their poor handling of various issues, from environmental protection to labor rights. Since the municipal elections, workers have gone on brief strikes in Bayraklı, Konak, Çiğli and Buca districts over low salaries. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change announced that it issued a fine of more than TL 3.7 million ($95,744) to Izmir Metropolitan Municipality for uncontrolled waste dumping in violation of regulations.
Konak municipality warned locals of disruptions to services after the labor talks to improve the salaries of some 1,500 workers collapsed. The municipality said in a statement that residents should also separately store their plastic, paper and glass waste.
Savaş Aras, head of a local branch of a national labor union representing the municipality’s workers, said they were open to further negotiations but opposed the municipality’s ignorance of labor rights. “They always come up with statements that they were going through economic depression and cannot pay what we’ve asked for,” he said in a statement.
Elsewhere, workers of three subsidiaries of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality announced on Wednesday that they would launch a strike on May 28, complaining that their salaries are lower than the minimum wage and citing a deadlock in talks with the municipality to improve them.
Labor union representatives said in a joint statement that the municipality failed to respond to their demands, and they had run out of patience. The striking workers include employees of an energy company of a municipality as well as a subsidiary operating parking lots and a company specializing in urban planning.
