Donus and her colleagues were rejected when they asked their boss for a wage increase of 25 euros, on their current salary of around 300 euros. They need it to pay for rising energy costs. On the second day of the strike, they all received a text message that they no longer had to come to work.
“They say: this is our policy, this is what we pay. If you don’t accept this, there’s the door,” says Donus, surrounded by her colleagues who nod in agreement. “I gave fourteen years of my life to this company. We don’t ask for anything that they can’t afford. This company is doing well, we make socks for export here.”
Textile industry as a pillar
While Donus and her colleagues are campaigning in the cold, an export fair for the textile industry is underway on the other side of Istanbul. Importers from all over the world are walking around. Turkish textile exports are the largest in the world after China and Bangladesh, says chairman of the textile export association Mustafa Gultepe.
The industry has been working overtime, especially since the corona pandemic. Many European companies wanted to leave China and knocked on Turkey’s door for their socks, underwear, jeans and T-shirts, he says. “It is easier for European companies to do business with us because of the cultural similarities.” And yes, he admits, Turkey has also become a lot cheaper because of the extreme depreciation of the Turkish lira.
Gultepe, who also owns a textile factory, realizes that an excessively fluctuating lira is not good for business. After all, the production of socks and shirts requires imported materials, the prices of which are skyrocketing. Despite this, textile exports are on the rise. With 12.9 billion dollars annual turnover, textile exports reached a Turkish record, according to pro-government newspaper Sabah.
Coin value almost halved
It is exactly what President Erdogan says he wants to achieve with his unconventional interest rate policy. By keeping interest rates low, it stimulates investment and production, the story goes. And a weak lira and low labor costs could make Turkey a bigger exporter.
That seems to be at the expense of the purchasing power of ordinary people. The lira lost 45 percent of its value last year. Erdogan, meanwhile, continues to refuse to raise interest rates. In an attempt to calm things down, he announced last week a reduction in VAT on foodstuffs, from 8 to 1 percent.
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