The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) celebrated May 1 International Labor Day on top of mass layoffs at the city halls it governs across Türkiye.
Its record of mass firings loomed over the CHP’s rhetoric of “worker solidarity” as mayors in major cities like Istanbul and Ankara continued sacking thousands of municipal workers even weeks ahead of Labor Day.
Most notably, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) has laid off over 23,000 people since CHP mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu took office in 2019 despite the mayor’s staunch promises to “not take any laborer’s job away” during his campaign.
Moreover, Imamoğlu hired over 66,000 personnel to fill in vacancies during this period, numbers showed.
Following in his footsteps were other CHP mayors slashing hundreds of jobs right after the March 31 local elections this year.
In Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, CHP Mayor Ahmet Özer fired 270 people barely two weeks after he came to office on March 31 and days ahead of Ramadan Bayram, also known as Eid al-Fitr.
In other Istanbul districts, CHP mayors dismissed 100 city hall staff in Ataşehir, 60 people in Beykoz and 71 others in Üsküdar on April 30, a district that CHP took from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in March polls.
In the capital, Ankara, CHP Mayor Mansur Yavaş oversaw the cutback of nearly 5,000 “redundant” jobs since taking office in 2019 and recruited instead 17,500 new personnel.
CHP mayors’ consistency in mass layoffs up until May Day drew former Üsküdar Mayor Hilmi Türkmen’s ire on Wednesday.
After CHP’s Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik called on citizens to march to Taksim Square on May 1 “to defend labor, justice and order rid of exploitation,” Türkmen responded: “Should 71 Üsküdar Municipality workers fired within the month (of CHP taking office) also attend this march?”
