In Turkey, where high inflation has rapidly eroded wages and precarious employment has become widespread, worker protests continue to grow across different sectors. From textile workshops to metal factories, and from warehouses to mining sites, workers are resisting low wages, union pressure, and dismissals. While some protests have continued for months and others for years, workers are trying to make their voices heard in front of factories, in public squares and in courtrooms, demanding wage increases, safe working conditions and recognition of their union rights.
Duygu Kıt wrote a piece for Mezopotamya Agency detailing the protests by workers and trade unions.
Temel Conta strike is a matter of honor
Workers at the Temel Conta factory in the Kemalpaşa district of Izmir have been on strike for a long time. The workers, who continue their strike under the leadership of the Oil, Chemical and Rubber Workers’ Union of Turkey (Petrol-Iş), are demanding recognition of their union rights and the signing of a collective agreement.
The resistance, maintained in a strike tent set up in front of the factory, is described as one of the longest worker strikes in recent years. Workplace representative Sinem Kaya shared the following information about their struggle: “We have been fighting for our union rights for 460 days. The employer not only refused to recognize the union and violated our union rights but also showed no respect for our right to strike. We won our case against strikebreaking that lasted for a year. At the same time, we represent and give voice to how union rights in this country remain only on paper. Being unionized in this country is very difficult. We exercised our right to unionize as a constitutional right, and we have been fighting for this right for 460 days. But the employer is trying to break our strike and seize our rights and constitutional freedoms in order to avoid recognizing our union rights. We documented this, but our struggle is not over. Our fight will continue until we obtain our rights. We will win by resisting.”
Şık Makas workers say they are in the final stretch
The resistance launched by 405 workers at the Şık Makas Tekstil factory, located in the Tokat Organized Industrial Zone and listed among the ISO 500 industrial enterprises, continues. Workers began their protest on October 7, 2025, stopping production and starting a demonstration in front of the factory due to delayed and incomplete wage payments, harsh and unhealthy working conditions, mobbing against women workers and the loss of job security.
BİRTEK-SEN worker representative Buse Kara said: “A few days ago we held a protest in front of the Ministry of Labor. We know that we will win. We are in the final stretch on the road to victory. The first hearings of our court cases have already taken place, and we will appear at the second hearings in March. Our demands are clear. We want our notice and severance pay to be paid in a single payment. We do not accept it being divided into installments. We will not accept any agreement unless it is reliable and guaranteed by a formal commitment.”
Digel workers resist to claim union rights
The resistance of TEKSIF union members working at Digel Tekstil, a Germany-based menswear company operating in the Aegean Free Zone in İzmir’s Gaziemir district, has continued for more than a year. The struggle began in response to the obstruction of union organizations, allegations of harassment and mobbing, and low wages. The resistance, which has now passed 422 days, is largely led by women workers. Workers continue their protests demanding recognition of their union rights and improvements in working conditions.
Dardanel workers launch protest
Women workers dismissed from the Dardanel factory in Istanbul’s Dudullu district began a protest on March 3 in front of the factory, demanding their unpaid severance and notice compensation after being laid off on the grounds of downsizing. The women workers emphasize that they will continue their struggle until they receive their rights.
TÜVTÜRK, municipal and mining workers resist
The Transport Workers Union of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK/Nakliyat-İş) launched a strike on December 13, 2025, at TÜVTÜRK Vehicle Inspection Stations in Istanbul after collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations stalled. The strike, involving around 750 workers, has continued for nearly three months as of March 2026.
Workers Turan Akta and Kakil Yazar from Kentyol Inc., a subsidiary of the Şişli Municipality, have been resisting dismissals and the appointment of trustees for 2,353 days. Meanwhile, Beşiktaş Municipality worker Turan Çil has been protesting in front of the municipality building for 89 days against precarious employment and poor working conditions.
In the Divriği district of Sivas, the resistance launched by miners against the closure of the Underground Iron Mine and the dismissal of more than 200 workers has reached its 111th day. Saying that “the people and workers of Divriği cannot be abandoned to unemployment and a future without prospects,” the miners continue their protest under the leadership of the Revolutionary Mine Research and Operation Workers’ Union of Turkey (Dev Maden Sen).
These protests taking place in different cities across Turkey demonstrate not only the struggles of workers in specific workplaces but also the growing impact of the deepening economic crisis on labor. While workers raise their voices against low wages and precarious employment, they say their struggle for union rights and humane living conditions will continue. The protest tents set up in front of factory gates, municipal buildings and mining sites have become new spaces of workers’ resistance.
Workers will not accept humiliation
Başaran Aksu, independent mining labor organizer and organizing coordinator of Umut Sen, said that the “crisis” cited as the reason for dismissals is a discourse used to conceal a mechanism of exploitation carried out jointly by employers and the ruling system against the working class and the poorer sections of society.
Aksu offered the following assessment regarding the direction of worker resistance: “On our right there is Ukraine and Russia, and on our left Syria and Iran are being bombed. In this atmosphere of war, employers and ruling elites imagined an environment in which the voices of workers would be silenced. On the contrary, this new global situation is producing new conditions for the lower and impoverished classes. The stance of workers is also emerging as a reaction to this uncertainty.
In workplaces where rights are being seized, where spending on occupational health and safety and even meal services is being cut, where pressure in the workplace is increasing, and where dismissals are used as examples to intimidate other workers, fear is being reproduced within the ranks of the working class through concrete examples at the workplace level. In such an environment, workers are increasingly inclined to struggle, to object and to stand up against the poverty wages imposed on them, aware that these wages push them toward humiliation and decay.”
Başaran Aksu continued: “Workers are producing an outcome in which the labor regime that the ruling system and the major holding companies have so far successfully established is beginning to crack. In this sense, they are presenting a path and a direction for where the workers’ movement and the trade union movement can advance. The wave of mobilization that began in December and continued into early March will in the coming period intersect with dynamics beyond the working class and continue to grow, sometimes fading and sometimes intensifying, like a snowball. Farmers, pensioners and small business owners will also join this struggle, because no other path has been left for Turkish society.”
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