Many workers were on strike nationwide on Monday in response to the Turkish government’s low wage offer in contract negotiations affecting around 4 million public employees and 2.5 million retirees.

Facing rising living costs and a significant decline in real wages, public employees were so angry that all public sector union confederations, including pro-government ones, struck together for the first time.

No official turnout figures were released for the strike, which was joined by confederations such as Memur-Sen, Kamu-Sen, Birleşik Kamu-İş, KESK, BASK, and DMK, as well as independent unions like HAK-SEN, YURT-SEN, and ASİM-SEN. There are approximately 2.3 million public sector workers who are union members.

Strikers staged protests in nearly every province, especially Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir. Tens of thousands reportedly participated in the Ankara demonstration. Despite the legal ban on strikes for public employees—which goes against international agreements and numerous court rulings—and the fact that Monday’s protest was not labelled a “general strike,” it had a significant impact, particularly on railways, where many services were cancelled, and on Turkish Post (PTT) services.

Before, the general directorates of national railways (TCDD) and PTT sent letters to workers stating that they “must not participate in the work stoppage under any circumstances” and threatening disciplinary action against those who did.

After initial negotiations, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government proposed a 10 percent increase for public employee and retirees in the first half of 2026, followed by 6 percent in the second half of that year and 4 percent in both halves of 2027. Memur-Sen, one of the union confederations representing public employees, demanded an 88 percent total increase for the first year and a 46 percent for the second year.

Despite the significant difference between the official offer and the workers’ demands, the government responded to the strike on Monday by mockingly offering a mere 1 percentage point increase in its offers for 2026. An 11 percent increase was then proposed for the first six months of 2026, followed by a 7 percent increase for the second six months. The 4 percent increases planned for 2027 remained unchanged. Workers refer to the proposed salaries as “poverty wages.”

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced the official annual inflation rate for July was 33.5 percent. However, ENAG, an independent organization, calculated the rate to be 65 percent. In recent years, the real annual inflation rate identified by ENAG has remained above 100 percent for a long time.

Union bureaucrats rejected the government’s offer because accepting it would have further angered public employees and risked their losing control over them. If no agreement is reached, the Public Servants Arbitration Board will determine the contract soon. Previously, the board just approved the government’s final offer.

On Monday, union confederations organised a work stoppage to placate pressure from workers. However, they left it unclear what would happen next. This tactic is used by union bosses to leave workers disoriented and force eventual acceptance of arbitration decisions.

Workers cannot rely on upper-middle class union bureaucracies, which have their own separate interests, in their struggle for better wages and working conditions. For decades, these bureaucracies have collaborated with the state and corporations to suppress class struggle and worsen workers’ conditions.

Public employees walked out after a struggle that was barely suppressed. Just a month-and-a-half ago, 600,000 public workers were preparing to strike against a similar austerity contract. However, the Türk-İş and the Hak-İş union confederations signed the contract just one day before the strike was set to begin.

Over the past few years, the government has been implementing a brutal class war program aimed at reducing real wages and eliminating social benefits. The government claims that wage increases lead to inflation and that there is no money for proper salary hikes. However, both claims are lies.

In fact, the main source of inflation is the exorbitant profits of banks and large companies, which the government fiercely defends. The government transfers public resources to these corporations through tax cuts, incentives, and interest payments. It also spends large amounts on armaments to defend the interests of these same capitalist oligarchs.

In 2024, Turkey, whose defence spending accounts for 2 percent of GDP (800 billion Turkish liras), will need to allocate an additional 1.5 trillion Turkish liras from its budget to increase its spending to 5 percent in line with its NATO commitment. This would mean further cuts in social spending and an increase in taxes, which are mainly collected from working people.

While the government suppresses wages and imposes austerity policies, the unemployment rate is rapidly increasing. According to a DİSK union confederation report based on official data, the broad unemployment rate rose by 3.5 percentage points to 13 million people (32 percent) in the second quarter of 2025. This figure is nearly three times higher than the EU’s broad unemployment rate of 10.9 percent.

To resist these attacks, public employees and other workers must form rank-and-file committees independent of the trade union apparatus in every workplace and adopt an international strategy of counterattack against capitalism. Only such committees can unite and mobilise the collective power of workers against official strike bans or union bureaucracies that attempt to block strikes, divide workers, and push through sellout agreements.

These committees will communicate with workers in Turkey and around the world to establish an international axis of struggle. The International Workers’ Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) provides the organization necessary to unite and advance the growing movement of workers around the world in opposition to the union bureaucracy. Contact us for help establishing a rank-and-file committee in your workplace.