A strike by thousands of municipal workers in Turkey’s western city of İzmir over wage demands continued on its fifth day Monday, halting public transit, trash collection and other essential services in the country’s third-largest city, according to Turkish media reports.
The strike was launched on Thursday by the General Services Workers’ Union (Genel-İş), affiliated with the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), after five months of negotiations failed to produce a new collective bargaining agreement.
The workers are demanding a monthly wage of 82,000 to 94,000 lira (approximately $2,100 to $2,400), citing the rising cost of living and demanding parity with colleagues represented by a rival union that recently secured higher pay.
As of June 2025, the minimum wage in Turkey is TL22,104 ($563) per month.
The strike affects more than 23,000 workers employed by the municipality and its companies, including İZELMAN, İZENERJİ and EGEŞEHİR, which provide key services such as waste removal, public transport and child care.
Buses and metro services stopped operating citywide, while garbage has piled up across neighborhoods, including in the central districts of Alsancak and Konak.
Parents have been left without access to municipal kindergartens, and soup kitchens for low income citizens and city-run slaughterhouses have also suspended operations.
The İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, led by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Mayor Cemil Tugay, rejected the union’s demands, calling them financially unsustainable.
The mayor said the city offered workers a raise that would bring monthly wages to 60,000–76,000 lira, arguing that exceeding this amount would exceed budget limits and strain municipal finances.
Tugay accused the union of making unreasonable demands and insisted the city would not “bow to pressure.”
The mayor personally joined nighttime garbage collection efforts using non-striking personnel, drawing protests from union leaders who accused him of undermining the strike.
Union officials defended the action, saying workers are seeking “equal pay for equal work” and will continue striking until a fair deal is reached.
Protesters have held daily rallies in downtown İzmir since the strike began, chanting slogans and marching with banners demanding improved wages and working conditions.
Union leaders say the current wage offer falls short of restoring purchasing power lost to inflation.
Legal action was filed in İzmir’s 4th Labor Court by two lawyers seeking to suspend the strike on public health and safety grounds.
The petition argues that the strike unlawfully disrupts essential services and violates citizens’ constitutional rights to public health and freedom of movement.
The court has not yet ruled on the case, and the strike had continued into its fifth day as of June 2.
Mayor Tugay said the city would pursue legal remedies and pledged that the strike “will end one way or another.”
Turkey’s national government has not directly intervened but has previously signaled plans to introduce legal limits on strikes in critical municipal services.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently said banning such strikes was “on the agenda” following earlier labor actions in İstanbul.
As garbage continues to pile up and transit remains suspended, residents have expressed frustration but also sympathy with the workers’ demands.
The strike has exposed tensions between Turkey’s opposition-run local governments and traditionally supportive left-leaning unions.
Talks between the city and the union have not resumed, and no resolution appears imminent.