Tekoşin Tekin- Nurcan Yalçın/JINHA

AMED – With unions calling workers across Northern Kurdistan to come to a massive May 1 rally in the city of Batman, Turkey, women workers in the region are prepared to take to the streets for International Workers' Day.

The city of Batman, where workers in the petroleum industry have been struggling against exploitation, is hosting the Northern Kurdistan May 1 action this year. Workers from the provinces of Şırna, Siirt, Batman, Mardin and Diyarbakır will head to downtown Batman on May 1 to decry the workplace accidents in Turkey and to escalate workers' struggle in the region.

Women workers from the factories of Diyarbakır's Organized Industrial Zone says they will be heading to Batman and taking to the streets to demand workers' rights for women, who face discrimination, harassment, and low pay in the workplace.

Hülya Demir, a worker who has worked in a factory in the Organized Industrial Zone for four years, says that although May 1 is only a holiday for top-ranking staff at her workplace, she and other workers will be out in the streets on May 1 demanding their rights.

Worker Ayşe Çapraz noted that women face the double burden of working for a wage and in the home. She called for legal changes to remedy the situation, noting that if it's left to employers, nothing will change.

"We'll be saying equal pay for equal work," said worker Songül Olta.

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