Around ten thousand Çaykur (tea manufacturing company) workers have gone on a strike at 58 workplaces on Monday. The union decided to go on a strike following the disagreement between Tek Gıda-İş and Public Employers' Union representing Çaykur during collective bargaining meetings.

Hundreds of Çaykur workers, Chairman of Tek Gıda-İş Union, Mustafa Türkel, and representatives of other unions gathered in front of general directorate of Çaykur in the early hours of the morning.

Speaking here, Mustafa Türkel said that they had no choice but to go on a strike in the face of the practices by the employer who -he said- aimed to pave the way for Çaykur's privatization by denying the rights of unionists and thus eliminating the union.

Türkel said unionists themselves will decide when the strike should end. He added that the union will also be staging demonstrations in the coming days to support the strike.

Following Türkel's statement, workers started a march to the office of the union.

On the other hand, Çaykur Director General İmdat Sütlüoğlu released a written statement on Sunday, defending that the demands of workers are unlikely to be satisfied. Sütlüoğlu claimed that Çaykur was making a loss and didn't have the budget to make the payment workers demanded.