Only 14.4 percent of workers in Turkey, excluding civil servants, are members of a union, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday, citing data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
Out of a total of 16,163,054 workers registered in Turkey’s social security system, only 2,330,098 are members of a union, according to Anadolu.
The data further showed that the Turkish Metalworkers Union has the largest membership among all unions, with 258,928 members. It is followed by the All Municipal and Public Service Workers Trade Union (Hizmet- İş) and Öz Sağlık-İş, the health and social service workers union, with 256,625 and 199,587 members, respectively.
The data found an increase of 0.16 percent in the rate of unionization compared to July 2022.
One out of every four workers in Turkey was protected by a collective bargaining agreement at the end of the 1980s, when the almost continuous decline of coverage began. The lowest membership rate was in 2013, but since then it has risen slightly.