Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered the postponement of a miners’ strike at a state-owned company out of concerns for national security, in a move that sparked a backlash for violating constitutional protections for union activity, the Anka news agency reported.
Erdoğan delayed for 60 days a strike planned by the Turkish Mine Workers Union (Maden-İş) at four branches of Eti Maden, the country’s state-run mining enterprise. The decision was published in the Official Gazette on Thursday with Erdoğan’s signature, citing the strike’s potential to “disrupt national security,” in accordance with Article 63 of Turkey’s law on unions and collective bargaining.
Talks covering roughly 600,000 public workers ended without agreement this week after the government offered a 24 percent wage increase for the first half of 2025 and 11 percent for the second half. For 2026, the proposed increases were 10 percent and 6 percent at two six-month intervals. The umbrella labor union, the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÜRK-İŞ), rejected the proposal and announced a strike, of which the action at Eti Maden was to be the first.
The strike, which was scheduled to begin on August 1, was to take place at the Eti Maden headquarters in Ankara’s Çankaya district, the Bigadiç Boron Operation Directorate in Balıkesir, the Kırka Boron Operation Directorate in Eskişehir and the Emet Boron Operation Directorate in Kütahya. Around 2,100 workers were expected to join the strike.
Union leaders cited growing frustration with what they described as disrespectful wage proposals amid high inflation and rising poverty in the country.
‘National security argument lacks substance’
Following Erdoğan’s move, Maden-İş issued a strong statement on Thursday condemning the government’s decision to postpone the planned strike at Eti Maden, calling it a direct assault on workers’ rights.
“Today, as the Turkish Mine Workers Union, we are once again faced with a decision that disregards our labor, our rights and our hard-earned livelihoods,” their statement said. “This strike postponement amounts to the effective seizure of a constitutional right that is supposed to be guaranteed — our right to strike.”
The union added that the government’s move was an unacceptable attempt to silence the voice of thousands of workers who risk their lives underground every day to earn a living.
“This decision aims to suppress the voices of miners who toil meters below the surface, often at the cost of their lives,” the union said. “We cannot accept it.”
The opposition also voiced strong objections to the government’s decision to halt the strike. Ali Mahir Başarır, deputy group chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), criticized the government’s move to delay the miners’ strike, calling it a violation of the rule of law.
“This is not a postponement, it’s a ban, plain and simple,” Başarır wrote on X. “And what has been delayed is not the strike, but the principle of the rule of law.”
Başarır noted that 600,000 public-sector workers had exercised their constitutional right by deciding to strike in response to the government’s inadequate wage proposal.
Erinç Sağkan, president of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations, condemned the postponement and said it constitutes a violation of Article 51 of the constitution, which guarantees the right to form and operate unions.
Sağkan said on his X account that Turkey is increasingly witnessing the disregard of Constitutional Court decisions. He cited a 2015 ruling in the Kristal-İş case, in which the court found that national security cannot be invoked to delay a strike without a concrete basis. The court reiterated the same view in a later case involving the Birleşik Metal-İş union.
Despite those rulings, Sağkan said, 14 strikes have since been postponed with similarly vague justifications and no specific explanations. He called this pattern “a clear violation” of constitutional rights.
Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has now postponed strikes on 22 occasions, including the current Eti Maden strike, since it came to power in 2002. Strikes have repeatedly been blocked under AKP rule on grounds such as threats to national security, public health, economic and financial stability and urban transportation services, leading to widespread criticism about the violation of a constitutional right.
In Turkey the right to strike is recognized by the constitution, specifically in Article 54, which states that “employees have the right to strike in the event of a labor dispute arising during negotiations for the conclusion of a collective bargaining agreement.”