1967 Turkish War-Labour Federation Strike And Its Reflections On The National Press

Abstract

As a result of the developing Turkish-American relations after the Second World War, American military bases were established in many parts of Türkiye. The US administration made an agreement with the Tumpane Company to meet the logistics needs of the military and civilian personnel at the bases in question. In addition to the personnel it brought from America, Tumpane Company had to employ Turkish workers, in accordance with the agreements made between the two countries. In order to protect the social rights of the Turkish workers, collective bargaining agreements were regularly made between the Tumpane Company and Turkish unions. This process caused some problems between both parties. As of 1967, the right to make a collective labour agreement with the employer was given to the Turkish War-Labour Federation by the affiliated unions. The collective bargaining agreement negotiations held between the Federation and the relevant company in June 1967 resulted negatively. The efforts of the Conciliation Board to step in and reach an agreement between the Federation and the Tumpane Company did not yield any results. Thereupon, the Federation used its constitutional right and decided to strike as of September 1967. During this period, there were tensions between American soldiers serving in American bases in Türkiye and picket workers of the Tumpane Company. Instead of calming these tensions, the American Armed Forces displayed a strike-breaking attitude. This attitude caused the Federation’s negotiation process with the Tumpane Company to become harder and longer. The current government described the strike as disruptive to national security and postponed it for 30 days due to the NATO exercise to be held in Türkiye. The Federation filed a lawsuit with the Council of State to annul this decision. The Council of State rejected the decision to postpone the strike. With the intervention of the High Conciliation Board, an agreement was reached between the Federation and the Tumpane Company and a collective labour agreement was signed. As a result, Turkish War-Labour Federation received many of the rights it requested from the company.

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of the government, opposition and union members, as well as American soldiers serving at bases in Türkiye, during the strike process, through a strike event that took place in 1967. For this purpose, the statements, interviews and comments given in the national newspapers and magazines of the period were researched and examined before and after the strike event. During the working period, strike movements were intense in Türkiye and were widely covered in the press. For this reason, the scope of the research was narrowed and the sampling method was preferred. Thus, an attempt was made to draw the profile of the period based on an event that was examined in depth.