Mahir Kılıç Reinstated in His Job: ‘It is a Gain for the Working Class’

'For 10 years, I looked after my kids by cleaning the garbage of İzmir'

Speaking to bianet, Mahir Kılıç previously recounted how he was dismissed from his job and started his resistance:

"In the previous term at the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, when Aziz Kocaoğlu was the mayor, I was dismissed together with 257 other workers because we filed a suit for permanent employment. Some of these workers had been working for the municipality for 26 years, some of them for 18. When I was dismissed, I had been working there for 10 years. What we had in common was that we filed a suit for permanent employment.

"When I took my annual leave, they relocated me from the solid waste department to the vegetable market. Three separate minutes were taken down against me in a months. Minutes were taken down against seven workers because they did not come to work shaven. While nothing happened to the other six, I was given a disciplinary punishment.

"In another time, they took down minutes against me, lying that he attacked his chief in a place where there were 350 security cameras. They dismissed me on that ground without giving me severance and notice pay. I could not even get my unemployment pay. My family was also condemned to hunger.

"I staged a hunger strike in front of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality after my dismissal. Nine fellow workers dismissed before me supported my resistance with a sit-in protest.

"At the end of the hunger strike, we signed a protocol with the representatives of rights and professional organizations as our witnesses. According to this protocol, we could start our job with the same rights. I ended my resistance after that.

"Seven months passed. But, in this period, we were neither reinstated in our jobs, nor did they answer our calls. We were deceived. And, I moved my resistance to the front of CHP Central Office. I went on a hunger strike.

"In November 2018, seven-eight months before the elections, we met with CHP İstanbul Chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu. In this meeting also participated by the lawyers, she promised that before the elections, I would start working at the Çiğli Municipality in İzmir for a temporary period and, after the elections, I would be taken back to my job at İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. I ended my resistance again.

"In that meeting, they told me that I could use two months off and would start working in Çiğli two months later. I did not wait for two months. I went to Çiğli Municipality one month later and requested a suitable job. However, I was not taken on.

"They apparently dismissed me from Çiğli Municipality before the March 31 elections. And while I was here resisting, they took down minutes against me 'because I was not coming to work' and my labor contract was terminated. I have never worked there anyway...

"While I was working at İzmir Municipality, my salary was almost 5 thousand lira, I had my annual leave, social rights, free public transportation card... I temporarily accepted the job at Çiğli Municipality in spite of that. The conditions there were those of a subcontracted job. Now, they say that he has been dismissed because he did not come to work.

"For 10 years, I looked after my children by cleaning the garbage of İzmir. I gained some rights by working on the streets come rain or shine. I want that job of mine."