Let me tell you about my experience as an unwanted trade unionist.
You'll understand why I'm not wanted.
As someone who comes from the Turkish trade union movement, let me shout the truths I have been shouting for a long time louder with Halkweb.
Yellow unionism is the biggest cancer of the working class. But why do these yellow unionists act so hypocritically? Because they have only one goal: to keep their seats.
Now let's look at the heads of the opposition and the leaders of the so-called revolutionary union. They are taking to the squares, shouting at the top of their lungs: “TÜİK is lying! TÜİK is manipulating the figures! TÜİK is deceiving the public!”
Very good. So I'll ask you:
Workers in Beşiktaş Municipality belong to DISK. Sarıyer belongs to DISK. Kartal is affiliated to DISK. Kadıköy is also affiliated to DISK. So tell me, why did you sign the collective labor agreements in these municipalities based on TÜİK figures?
I am someone who resigned from my position as a union representative because I objected to TÜİK figures. You say “TurkStat is lying” in the squares, but why didn't you use it when DISK has its own research institution? You use ENAG and DISK's own research as a reference when you tell tales to the public. But when you sit at the collective bargaining table, you use TÜİK's figures like a monster to protect your own seats.
Sir, you said, “If the minimum wage is not 30 thousand TL, we are out!” Madam, I thought you were saying “The hunger limit is 68 thousand TL”. So-called revolutionaries, fake leftists, so who signed the figures of TÜİK? Tell us and let us know.
There is something even more serious. In the history of DISK, I am one of the few people who protested against the headquarters. Before DISK moved its headquarters to Ankara, the headquarters was in Beşiktaş Dikilitaş Eren Street. When we went to make our voices heard as a handful of workers, there was no strike committee or solidarity. We were confronted by the police. It was the union executive who called the police. That lady who called the police against her own members will now come out and say, “We are celebrating May Day.”.
So I ask you: Where were you when your own workers, your union members, Beşiktaş workers were resisting? Where were you when Kadıköy workers were resisting? Where were you when Sarıyer workers were resisting? Where were you when Kartal workers were resisting?
Now look at today. The Independent Mineworkers Union is resisting because they are not getting paid. There are worker resistances all over Turkey like shepherd's fires. But where is our Revolutionary Labor Union? It is silent. Isn't it very interesting?
What's more, on the day we protested against DISK, construction workers were staging a resistance where Şimpaş used to be. It was a hundred meters away from the main building of DISK. One hundred meters! They didn't even give those workers a cup of tea. While the men were resisting without food or water, the “revolutionaries” in that building thought a cup of tea was too much.
What is a union with a revolutionary name doing? Revolutionaries pretending to criticize the system on the surface and greeting the bosses in the background. How is life going well? Ask them.
This is the summary of yellow unionism: When the seat of office starts to shake, the word “struggle” disappears from the vocabulary and is replaced by “security reasons”. For them, the union is not a place of belonging, but a means of livelihood. The worker is not a comrade, but a stepping stone. A stepping stone to become a national deputy. And unfortunately, those who rise on this step see only their own office at the top and the daggers of the workers they have wasted.
The working class must pay close attention to the yellow trade unionists and the fake left. The seats of these yellow trade unionists are not eternal. Sooner or later they will be overthrown. History will note them as objects of hatred.
Yellow trade unionists are not invincible. They will be defeated with the awakening and unity of the working class.