Workers Stopped Work at Izmir City Hospital

News: FATİH ÖZKILINÇ Camera: KERİM UĞUR

(İZMİR)- Workers working at the city hospital in Izmir Bayraklı went on strike, protesting low wages and intense working conditions. Workers asked the hospital management and the company they are affiliated with to improve their conditions.

Cleaning workers working at Izmir City Hospital went on strike against low wages and hard work. The workers gathered in front of the hospital in the morning and stated that their wages were at the minimum wage level and called out to the hospital management and the company they are affiliated with to improve their wages and working conditions.

“Hear our voice”

Speaking to ANKA News Agency, Halil İbrahim Ortaboğaz, one of the hospital personnel, said, “I have been working as an ISP personnel for 4 years since the construction of Izmir City Hospital. While we should be working with 1,500 people, we are working with 500-600 people. Our workload is increasing due to the lack of workers, and we are providing the necessary service to the patients.” We cannot give it to anyone who needs to hear it. Salaries have been improved at Ankara Etlik City Hospital. We also want improvements in our salaries. We are here for our rent and our children. We are here because they do not make improvements. “Help us,” he said.

“Nobody can survive on minimum wage”

Hospital staff member Mecit Çınar said, “I have been working here for 5 years. We have had no rights here for 2.5 years with the ISP. We even pay the travel money out of our own pocket. The food is very bad. The number of workers is very few. They are trying to force the work of 3-4 people to be done.” They threaten us by saying, ‘If you don’t do it, we will fire you.’ They call our friends who are on leave because of the lack of staff. Our salaries are very bad, we work for minimum wage, we want to get a job at the municipality. “While public sector employees receive 35-40 thousand liras, what do we lack from them? We work more than them, we want an increase in our salaries,” he said.

“Workers should get the value they deserve and have the healthy working environment they want”

Hak-İş Confederation İzmir Provincial Chairman Gültekin Şimşek said:

“We saw that our friends gathered to convey their demands to both the administration and the company they are affiliated with. They also conveyed their demands to us, and we, as the Hizmet-İş Union affiliated with Hak-İş, are here to mediate our friends’ demands. We both guided them about their membership in our union and We explained what our union can do to improve their rights. Unfortunately, being a union member is a bit problematic in our country. Only 2.5 million of the 16 million employees are unionized. The figures I mentioned are an indication of how few unionized employees there are. We want workers to get the value they deserve and the healthy working environment they want. As unions affiliated with Hak-İş, we are trying to prepare the ground for this as much as we can. Our friends working in different companies in city hospitals throughout Turkey will join forces to improve conditions by becoming members of our unions. “Our aim is not to disturb the functioning of our state’s institutions, we are just fighting for the labor world to get what it deserves,” he said.