DISK Elects Its First Woman General Secretary

On Saturday, Arzu Çerkezoğlu was elected as general secretary of DISK after 181 delegates in favor of her at a general election.

Receiving 280 votes out of 354 delegates, Kani Beko was elected as DISK new chairperson at the general congress held in Atatürk Kültür Merkezi in Istanbul.  

New elected board members were listed as follows: Alaattin Sarı, Ergün Tavşanoğlu, Metin Ebetürk, Celal Ovat and Muzaffer Subaşı.

“We are organizing our general congress at a period that AKP government is having internal and external administrational issues. We don't have issues within the unions organizations of DISK. We stand behind all of them regardless of their historical background," Arzu Çerkezoğlu said, addressing at the congress.

"The history of DISK is the history of Turkey's labor history. The history of DISK is the history of this struggle. There can't be any struggles within our unions, because our struggle is against the capital and its direct or indirect utilities. We are struggling for the recognition of our 10,000 members. The current government doesn't recognize them even though we got notary confirmation and applied to the ministry concerning their registration," she continued.

Reminding that her gender should not be a first priority regarding her candidacy, Çerkezoğlu said she is first of a "comrade" of DISK members.

Prior to voting, Kani Beko also addressed the congress.

"As you know, we are going through a period of peace in the Kurdish problem. This process can yield to a peaceful result with the common willingness of workers and people," Beko said.

Reminding that the union movement in Turkey is also evolving into a new period, Beko said: "The character of the old era was unionization at work. The character of the new era is working without becoming a union member. First of all, we need to fight against this tendency by determining a strategy. Then we need to start raising a new generation of workers. And lastly we need to reform our relations with public sector. We see these three as priorities of this term." (AS)