Reuters to send 10 journalists to Turkey to 'break' strike
After Reuters employees in Turkey decided to go on strike following disagreement on collective bargaining talks, the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) announced that the news agency is planning to bring 10 journalists to the country to work on the May 14 elections in “a move to break the strike.”
Eren Topuz / Gazete Duvar
The Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) on April 28 announced that Reuters is planning to bring 10 journalists to the country to work on the May 14 elections in “a move to break the strike.”
The move came after Reuters employees in Turkey on April 26 announced that they will go on strike on May 10 following disagreement on collective bargaining talks.
TGS Chair Gökhan Durmuş told Gazete Duvar on April 28 said that “Normally, two or three journalists would come from abroad in extraordinary situations such as elections. They analyze the news and follow the elections. This time, a team of 10 people is coming, from the cameraman to the editor in a move to break the strike. If 10 people will come, the strike here will have no effect.”
Durmuş added that Reuters has made no new proposal yet after the strike decision.
Meanwhile, the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş) Ergün Atalay said they applied to the Labour and Social Security Ministry to not give temporary work permits to journalists Reuters is planning to bring.
Employees of Reuters Turkey Office decided to go on strike in Istanbul and Ankara on May 10 after the news agency offered only a 25 percent raise in salaries.
Although the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced an annual inflation rate of 50.51% in March, ENAG Inflation Research Group, an independent institution set up in 2020 to track the country’s inflation, reported the inflation rate as 112.51%.
Inflation has been stoked by a currency crisis at the end of 2021 and hit a 24-year peak of 85.51% in October 2022. This figure was 185.34% according to the ENAG.