Kamu Emekçileri Sendikaları Konfederasyonu

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Kamu Emekçileri Sendikaları Konfederasyonu
(KESK)
legal form confederacy
purpose Public Service Unions
Seat Ankara
founding December 8, 1995

place Ankara
president Lami Özgen
Former board members Siyami Erdem
Members 240,000
Website http://www.kesk.org.tr/

The Kamu Emekçileri Sendikaları Konfederasyonu (Confederation of Public Service Workers, abbreviation: KESK ) is an association of trade unions organized in the public service in Turkey . In 2012, the unions organized in KESK had 240,000 members.

KESK is a member of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). In the membership list of the IGB, membership is given as 200,000 (as of November 2017).

History of origin

In April 1994, members of various trade union platforms met and decided to form a confederation. They announced this to the public on May 15, 1994. The trade unions within the trade union platform for public service workers (tr: Kamu Çalışanları Sendikaları Platformu KÇSP) and the coordination formed in Ankara (tr: EŞGÜDÜM ) formed various commissions on June 11, 1994. On November 26th and 27th, 1994, congresses were held in four regions ( İstanbul , Ankara , Bursa , İzmir ). A central congress then took place in Ankara on February 25 and 26, 1995. 710 delegates from 26 trade unions attended this congress.

At this congress it was decided to form a confederation within four months. But that didn't work. On November 11 and 12, 1995, another congress was held in Ankara with 500 delegates from 28 trade unions. A statute was passed here. These statutes were presented to the governor of Istanbul on December 8, 1995 . With that, KESK was officially founded. Today the headquarters of KESK is in Ankara. KESK held its first ordinary general assembly from 16. – 18. August 1996. There Siyami Erdem was elected chairman and Faysal Özçift general secretary.

Member unions

While the KESK website lists 37 unions that were founded after 1990 without explicitly stating that they all belong to the confederation, 11 unions for August 2012 (including the number of members) that belong to KESK are listed elsewhere.

Name (tr) Union in the field Members
BES (Emekçileri Sendikası Office) Office worker 21555
BTS (Birleşik Taşımacılık Çalışanları Sendikası) transport 2808
DİVES (Diyanet ve Vakıf Emekçileri Sendikası) Religious Office and Foundations 241
Eğitim-Sen Teacher 125316
ESM (Enerji, Sanayi ve Maden Kamu Emekçileri Sendikası) Energy, industry and mining 3988
Haber-Sen Press, publications and mail 3943
Kültür Sanat - Sen Culture and art 4035
SES (Sağlık ve Sosyal Hizmet Emekçileri Sendikası) Health and social services 41052
Tarım Orkam-Sen Agriculture, forests and ranching 3165
Tum Bel - Sen City administrations 30043
Yapı Yol - Sen Construction 3811

Persecution situation

Since its inception, members have faced criminal prosecution and disciplinary proceedings for union activity (such as work stoppages ) or expressing opinions . Between 1991 and 1997 more than 100,000 trade unionists were affected. According to information from KESK, 12,642 cases were still pending at the end of 1997. Between 1991 and 1997, 4,305 trade unionists were “transferred to punishment” (tr: sürgün ) and 1,889 were dismissed. In November 1997, the governor of Şanlıurfa ordered the closure of the offices of SES and Eğitim Sen (affiliated unions of KESK) after prohibited publications were found in the offices. Three members of the SES board of directors in Şanlıurfa Province, who were charged in November 1997 with separatist propaganda and support for an illegal organization, were acquitted in April 1998.

On December 19, 2002, the 4th Chamber of the Diyarbakir State Security Court acquitted the members of the KESK choir of allegations of supporting an illegal organization. They sang Kurdish songs at a congress in Egitim-Sen in February of that year. Between 1990 and 2003, more than 2,000 KESK members were relocated from the area under a state of emergency (OHAL) to another location for disciplinary reasons. On April 4, 2007, District Court No. 28 in Ankara ended the trial of 23 trade unionists in connection with the “Teachers' March” organized by Egitim-Sen in 2005. The court sentenced 10 union leaders to 15 months' imprisonment and a fine. The sentences were suspended, with the exception of the sentence against the chairman of KESK, Ismail Hakki Tombul and the chairman of BTS, Ibrahim Fehmi Kütan.

More than 30 trade unionists from KESK were brought before the 8th Chamber for Serious Crimes in Izmir . They were arrested in May 2009 but were later released. On November 28, 2011, the 8th Chamber for Serious Crimes in Izmir sentenced 25 of the accused, including the chairman of KESK, Lami Özgen, to 6 years and 3 months in prison each. They had come together within the Union of the Communities of Kurdistan (KCK) in a Democratic Confederation of Labor (tr: Democracy Emek Konfederasyonu , DEK) and thus acted in the interests of the terrorist organization PKK. Six defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence.

Further KCK proceedings against trade unionists from KESK are pending in Ankara. In February 2012, a number of KESK members were arrested in Ankara and 15 of them (all women) were charged as KCK members. On October 4, 2012, the proceedings before the 11th Chamber for Serious Crimes in Ankara began. Three of the detained defendants remained in custody. In the hearing on 14 December 2012, the remaining three were pre-trial detainees released from custody and the procedure on the 18 April 2013 was postponed.

After the arrests in February 2012, KESK was again affected by arrests in June 2012 as part of the KCK investigation. After operations in Ankara, Diyarbakır , İstanbul , Ağrı , Bitlis , Siirt , Adana and Eskişehir , the 12th Serious Crime Chamber in Ankara ordered 28 trade unionists to be detained, while 25 were not arrested, but with a trial for membership in an armed gang have to reckon. In its 2012 progress report, the European Union described the more than 70 arrests as a restriction on freedom of organization .

The trial of 72 defendants began on April 10, 2013 in the 13th Chamber for Serious Crimes in Ankara. The court overturned the arrest warrants for the 22 defendants in custody and adjourned to July 8, 2013. Six arrest warrants had been overturned on February 15, 2013 prior to the main hearing. The 1140 page indictment calls for sentences of between 7.5 and 15 years in prison under Article 314/2 of the Turkish Penal Code.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b See a message in the portal memurlar, net of August 10, 2012 Sendika üye sayıları resmi olarak açıklandı ; Accessed January 11, 2013
  2. ↑ List of the national member associations in the ETUC , accessed on May 23, 2018
  3. ↑ IGB Membership List , accessed on May 23, 2018
  4. ↑ a b c The information can be found on the KESK website under Kamu Emekçilerinin Örgütlenme Süreci ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Organizational phase of public sector employees); Accessed January 11, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kesk.org.tr
  5. ↑ a b See the 1997 Annual Report of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV); Ankara 1999, ISBN 9757217220 , pp. 422-426 (Turkish).
  6. ↑ See the 1998 Annual Report of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV); Ankara 2000, ISBN 9757217255 , p. 357 (Turkish).
  7. ↑ See the weekly report 51/2002 from the Turkish Democratic Forum; Accessed January 11, 2013
  8. ↑ See the weekly report 42/2003 from the Turkish Democratic Forum; Accessed January 11, 2013
  9. ↑ See the weekly report 14/2007 from the Turkish Democratic Forum; Accessed January 11, 2013
  10. ↑ Compare the information in an English special report by the DTF , accessed on July 17, 2012
  11. ↑ See DTF weekly report 48/2009 ; accessed on October 22, 2010
  12. ↑ See the report of the Turkish Democratic Forum (DTF) for October 2012 ; Accessed October 15, 2012
  13. ↑ See the daily report of the TIHV for December 14, 2012 (Turkish); Accessed January 11, 2013
  14. ↑ See the daily reports of the Foundation for Human Rights in Turkey in English for the 26.-28. June 2012, reproduced on the English pages of the DTF , accessed on July 17, 2012
  15. ↑ See a comprehensive translation of the 2012 EU Progress Report ; Accessed January 11, 2013
  16. ↑ a b See the report of the Turkish Democratic Forum for April 2013 ; Accessed April 11, 2013