The Turkish government banned a legal strike by miners at the state-owned mining company Eti Maden with a Presidential Decree published just hours before the strike was set to begin.
The strike, which was scheduled to start on August 1, 2025, and organized by the IndustriALL affiliate union Maden-İş, was “postponed” for 60 days by Presidential Decree No. 10150, signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and published in the Official Gazette on July 30. The decree claimed the strike posed a threat to national security.
“It is completely unacceptable that another strike in Turkey has been banned using the same method. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has repeatedly criticized the Turkish government for this practice,” said Kemal Özkan, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary.
“We stand in full solidarity with the Turkish miners who are fighting for their just and legitimate demands.”
Although officially termed a “postponement,” this practice effectively amounts to a strike ban. According to Turkish labor law, if a solution is not reached by the end of the 60-day period, the dispute is referred to compulsory arbitration; this process eliminates workers’ right to strike and imposes a binding decision without a new negotiation process.
More than 600,000 public workers have been in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement for over seven months. The government’s proposed wage increase was announced as 24% for the first half of 2025, 11% for the second half, followed by 10% and 6% for 2026, respectively. However, Maden-İş and the Türk-İş confederation rejected this offer, finding it insufficient in the face of high inflation in Turkey.
The Turkish government has repeatedly “postponed,” and effectively banned, strikes in key sectors, drawing criticism from the international community, including the International Labour Organization (ILO). The practice undermines the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, which are guaranteed by ILO Conventions No. 87 and 98.
IndustriALL Global Union condemns this attack on union rights and calls on the Turkish government to withdraw the decree, respect international standards, and engage in good-faith negotiations.