Workers Protest Over Labor Rights in Turkish Capital

Source from:  Xinhua 12/30/2009

Thousands of workers of a former state alcohol and tobacco monopoly rallied in the Turkish capital Ankara on Monday in protest against possible layoffs due to the company's privatization. The workers of the Tekel company, who had been staging demonstrations in Ankara for the past two weeks, gathered in the city's Guven Park and later moved to Izmir Street to protest the government's refusal to meet their demands, the newspaper Hurriyet Daily News reported on its website. The workers said they would lose employee rights and job security if their workplaces close down as a result of Tekel's privatization, according to the report. Global cigarette giant British American Tobacco PLC won an auction for Tekel with a bid of 1.72 billion U.S. dollars in February 2008 and completed the acquisition in June last year. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week called actions of the protestors "provocative," saying some 10,000 Tekel workers earned money without working and rendered a huge cost for the government. Enditem