Stony Brook Worker Editorial & Foundation Universities Branch of The Private-Sector Teachers’ Union from Türkiye

Stony Brook Worker Editorial: Can you introduce the Private-Sector Teacher’s Union, and your branch in the union? 

The Private-Sector Teachers’ Union:  The Private Sector Teachers' Union is the roof of hundreds of thousands of education workers in the private sector who have been exploited, humiliated, discredited, disorganized and ignored by the state and bosses for decades. Turkey experienced a harsh transformation to neoliberal economic policies after the 1980 coup and the number of private schools and universities has increased dramatically since then, especially after the AKP government took power in 2002. 

The Private Sector Teachers’ Union was established in 2021 to promote, defend, and improve the rights and working conditions of education workers in the private institutions in Turkey. It is the first massive, successful and therefore historical  attempt for organizing in this field. Our branch of Foundation Universities was established in May 2023 as part of the union, but we have our own committee and commissions due to working conditions, laws, problems and demands specific to our field.

SBW: What were the conditions that private sector teachers faced in Turkey that led to the formation of the union? Can you describe in general the conditions and problems that education workers face in Turkey?

P-STU: Until the 2010s, private schools paid teachers much higher salaries than public schools. However, mass expansion of private schools and the creation of an excess “labour supply” of teachers by the expansion in the numbers of education faculties in Turkey’s higher education, reversed the situation gradually, lowering wages for workers. In 2014, the legal basis for this process was the government's repeal of a law stipulating that teachers working in the private sector could not be paid less than teachers working in public schools. In the absence of this “base salary” law, private sector teachers are exposed to minimum wage (or slightly above) depending on their subject areas. Despite the fact that all schools in Turkey, whether public or private, operate under the same law and under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education, private sector teachers are working longer hours, and their additional course fees and public holidays are being usurped. Another major problem is job security. Teachers are dealing with great anxiety through the end of their fixed-term (one year) contracts. The same problems apply to university staff with slight variations. In general, education workers are faced with poverty and precarity, intertwined with unlawful practices and power asymmetry in the workplace.

SBW: What important campaigns has the Private-Sector Teacher’s Union had since its formation? What are the main demands it has been pushing? Can you talk about the process of these campaigns, the changes, victories, lessons, etc.?

P-STU: The union’s main demand is the reinforcement of the base salary law that was taken from us in 2014. To this end, we have been trying to keep this demand on the national agenda with all possible means: countless protests, social media campaigns, posters and banners, meetings, etc. We organized three big demonstrations in the capital city Ankara. The first one was held on August 30, 2022 and was prevented by police brutality. We were exposed to tear gas and many of our friends were violently taken into custody. On January 29, 2024, we were in front of the National Ministry of Education demanding an appointment. Thanks to our determined stance, the Minister of Education met with us. These bureaucratic negotiations failed to yield results. We gathered in Ankara on May 26th and started a 52-day vigil in front of the Turkish National Assembly while the new “Teaching Profession Law” was negotiated in parliament. This sit-in protest was unsuccessful in terms of passing the base salary law. However, we managed to keep our demand on the national agenda, we were recognized by the ministry as the representative of teachers, we opened an important area for social mobility in the center of the capital city, and we gained experience as a union.

SBW: Can you talk further and more specifically about higher education workers? What problems do academic workers in higher education (whether graduate workers or faculty members) face in Turkey, both in the public and private sector? What are some trends and changes in the structure of higher education that you think lead to these problems?

P-STU: Higher education in Turkey has been undergoing a similar course of transformation with education in general, characterized by privatization, marketization and mass increase in university and student numbers. These common global trends led to precarization for workers, resulting in loss of social rights and bargaining power, and the state of being unorganized. But there are dynamics specific to higher education and transformation of the University, generating distinctive outcomes for the academic work and workers. The neoliberal transition of universities and higher education in Turkey started with the establishment of the Council of Higher Education (called YÖK in turkish initials) by the military government in 1981. Since then, YÖK has operated as a central state apparatus licensed by the law to check, control, and direct the activities of universities, deciding on agendas and creating and applying policies towards higher education on a national scale from a single center. YÖK was established primarily as a reaction to the university youth movement, which was one of the driving forces of the powerful social movements before the coup. In the same year, a law was passed that allowed the establishment of “foundation” universities (FU). YÖK has been continuing to constitute an exclusive example of anti democratic and authoritarian institutional structure: neither the president nor the formation of the Council is selected, offered, or discussed by the academic community, or by anyone, according to the processes determined by the law.

The law only allowed foundations to establish universities. The law states that FUs must be non-profit. In other words, the income has to be spent on the university. However, the reality is the opposite.

The first FU, Bilkent University, was established in 1984 by İhsan Doğramacı, who was also the first president of YÖK. Since then, a total of 98 FUs have been established, including those that have closed. Today, there are 129 state and 79 foundation universities in Turkey. Most of these FUs were founded by capitalists who were already active in other sectors. Academics who work in FUs are more exposed to low salaries, precarization, strict working hours, pressures on freedom of expression, and mobbing, etc.

SBW: Do academic workers in private universities face these problems in a harsher manner? Are there additional dynamics or problems that your branch is addressing?

P-STU: As we mentioned, the problems we are talking about affect the higher education system as a whole. However, arbitrariness and unlawfulness are experienced at much higher levels in foundation universities, starting from salaries and insecurity. YÖK is not fulfilling its duty to inspect these institutions. 

The ambiguity regarding the legislation to which foundation university academics are subject creates the basis for insecurity and the arbitrariness on wages. The higher education law, which applies to all academics regardless of whether they work at public or private institutions, does not guarantee secure employment. Unlike those at state universities, academics at foundation universities are also subject to a separate labor law which makes the situation even more complicated. This allows foundation university administrations to impose annual fixed-term contracts. However, every action taken by foundation universities, which are institutions established by law and have a public legal personality, is an administrative act that must take into account the public interest. That is why most of our colleagues who apply to the administrative court are returning to work or getting the deficiency payments according to the law. However, since these cases generally take too long, they cannot be a real preventive measure collectively against dismissals and thus remain individual.

SBW: What are your branch’s current campaigns? What are the main demands you are organizing around?

P-STU: The slogan that united us—“Enforce the Law, Equalize Wages”—highlighted the need to implement existing regulations to ensure that academics at foundation universities receive at least the same pay as their counterparts at state universities. This message played a crucial role in helping us reach a significant number of members within our union’s first year. The violation of a rule that had been approved by parliament and became law in 2020 caused great anger among academics. The law has been ignored by most of the universities. In order to keep the issue on the agenda, we organized meetings both in workplaces and our union office; social media campaigns and live broadcasts on Instagram. We gave countless interviews to national and independent TV news channels and newspapers. We organized protests in front of the universities and at central locations in Istanbul, which helped us attract media attention. Today, almost half the existing foundation universities are paying in accordance with the law. Even though this is an important gain, the current situation shows us that we need to struggle more for the full implementation of the law in all universities.

Another big topic is job insecurity for academic workers in foundation universities. Lately, we estimate that more than 50 academics were laid off at foundation universities last summer. We organized a couple of protests in front of the universities where we are strong. Our main slogan is “We Will End Insecurity”. However, we have not yet been able to put forward a struggle that would prevent these layoffs collectively.

SBW: What are some of the most important challenges you face organizing in higher education, whether concerning talking with academic workers and recruiting them, or pressuring administration or the government for change? How do you attempt to overcome these challenges that can provide us and other academic workers lessons to further our struggles?

P-STU: The main challenge we face as a union is the industry sector we operate in. This is an issue that concerns collective bargaining. In Turkey, a union has to represent at least 1% of the total number of registered workers in the relevant industry to be authorized for collective bargaining. Our industry sector, “Trade, office, education and fine arts” is a Christmas tree that contains various professions which are totally unrelated to each other. It is by far the most populous industry sector with nearly 4.5 million workers, including 450,000 education workers. Therefore, our union needs to recruit 45,000 workers (instead of 4,500) to become a collective bargaining agent. Currently, we have 12,000 members. The present sector hinders our right to collective bargaining. Thus, one of our main demands is a new industry sector solely for education workers. It is not easy to recruit for a union that does not have the right to collective bargaining. We try to overcome this obstacle with the legitimacy of our active struggles.

Lastly, academic workers in FUs have reservations about joining the struggle because of their precarious conditions and competitive recruitment processes. Precariousness in academia is multi-layered: while insecurity affects the entire academic system in Turkey, it becomes more pronounced at the lower levels of the academic hierarchy, particularly among graduate students and research assistants, where the challenges and instability are even more acute. Individualism and bias against collective struggle especially in recent years also serves this pattern. However, we know that collective movements are not linear but undulatory. When heated struggles take place and recruitment accelerates, we try to allocate all our existing resources and achieve the most advanced gains possible. In calmer times, we continue recruiting and organizing workplace meetings to be prepared for new waves. We try to produce our own discourse and put forward perspectives on FUs consistently.

SBW: Do you think academic workers across the world are facing similar problems, changes, and structures? How so?

P-STU: Especially in the last ten years, we have witnessed countless strikes and protests of academic workers all around the world, from the US and UK to Kenya and Sri Lanka. University-industry collaboration/integration, together with its economic and political impact on academic work, follows an uneven yet combined development across the world. While the conditions they face (such as governments, political climate, and the level of workers' organization) may differ, their demands consistently reflect common concerns, particularly around fair wages, job security, and autonomy.

SBW: How do you think we develop international solidarity as academic workers? What are collective campaigns we can have, actions we can undertake, to show solidarity for each others’ struggles?

P-STU: Academic unions worldwide should start exploring opportunities for collaboration. We must find ways to build solidarity and establish meaningful connections, drawing strength from successful struggles and learning from our mistakes. By sharing resources and strategies, academic workers could begin to create a global network to support one another. Joint campaigns on issues like fair wages, job security, and academic freedom might bring our struggles to a broader audience. Collective actions such as conferences or protests could be a way to strengthen solidarity and contribute to the international movement for workers' rights in academia.

SBW: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

P-STU: We extend our solidarity to all academic workers fighting for their rights—especially those at Stony Brook University—and to all those striving for a fairer, more just academic environment in the US.