Filiz Zeyrek/JINHA

XARPET- As the sit-in protest of teachers has continued in Elazığ, “We held a strike action by using our legal rights. As we know from our experiences, the rights aren’t given, they are taken,” said Ayşe Yılmaz, secretary of Eğitim Sen Branch.

The sit-in protest against the suspension of 99 teachers in Elazığ has continued in the office of Eğitim Sen (the Education and Science Workers Union) for five days. Eğitim Sen Elazığ Branch Secretary Ayşe Yılmaz said, “We will continue our protests until this injustice is ended.” Ayşe stated that as KESK (the Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions), they said “No to coups” and teachers had been suspended from their duties as unlawful. Ayşe said, “Application was made to the AYM (Constitutional Court) for nullity of the order. Not only teachers but also health laborers and public laborers are unjustly treated and subjected to atrocity of the statutory decree that’s without a legal ground.”

Ayşe stated that they held a-day strike action on December 19, 2015 by using their trade union rights, “We used our statutory right. We will continue our struggle on legal and legitimate ground. As we know from our experiences, the rights aren’t given, they are taken. Therefore, our seeking for rights against injustice will continue until we get our rights.”

(gc/gd)