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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 000303 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2020 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ELAB ECON TU IS
SUBJECT: ANTALYA: THE SUN ALWAYS RISES FOR TOURISM, BUT NOT 
FOR LABOR UNIONS 
 
REF: 09 ANKARA 509 
 
Classified By: POL Counselor Daniel O'Grady, for reasons 1.4(b,d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY:  Turkey's premier tourist destination, 
Antalya has seen 10 percent economic growth annually over the 
past six years and remains a magnet for young Turks seeking 
jobs.  Some 11 million tourists (most of them foreigners) 
came to Antalya in 2009, although there was a sharp drop in 
Israeli visitors after PM Erdogan's Davos outburst.  Not 
surprisingly, the service sector dominates the local economy, 
but labor unions complain that they have made few 
breakthroughs in organizing despite numerous appeals from 
workers.  Unemployment rates are significantly below the 
national average.  The Justice and Development Party (AKP) 
lost the mayor's seat to the opposition Republican People's 
Party (CHP) in March 2009.  AKP's demise in Antalya is blamed 
on bad advice at the national level that led the mayor to 
incur debts for a poorly planned light rail contract that 
immobilized the city center.  The new mayor is rescheduling 
the debt and struggling to pay his employees.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) Antalya is Turkey's tourism powerhouse.  Along the 
province's 600-kilometer Mediterranean coastline lie five 
resort cities, and in 2009 an estimated 11 million tourists 
(8.2 million of them foreigners) spent their holidays in 
Antalya.  Ministry of Culture and Tourism statistics show 
only Istanbul gets more visitors each year, although the 
Turkish Federation of Hoteliers (TUROFED) points to tourist 
overnight stays -- an average of 10 nights in Antalya versus 
2 nights in Istanbul -- as proof that Antalya is the premier 
tourist destination. 
 
¶3. (U) When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to 
power in Turkey in November 2002 it did not win a majority in 
Antalya, where the Republican People's Party (CHP) held 8 of 
the 13 seats.  But when the AKP won the local elections in 
Antalya in 2004 with increasing tourism as one plank in its 
election platform, it dramatically increased investment by 
the federal government into Antalya's infrastructure.  From 
2004 to 2009, the AKP built new roads and airports to bring 
more local and international tourists to Antalya, and 
according to TUROFED the province's income grew by an average 
10 percent a year. 
 
Tramway that Railroaded the Mayor 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Menderes Turel, Antalya's former (AKP) mayor, also 
focused on infrastructure development and was seen as 
successful in increasing growth in the tourism sector.  In 
2008, on the advice of Prime Minister Erdogan, Turel incurred 
a 400 million TL (roughly $250 million) debt to contract 
Sadik Albayrak, the father of Erdogan's new son-in-law, to 
build a light rail system in the center of Antalya.  Many of 
the shop owners in city's commercial district strenuously 
protested the decision.  Nevertheless, to complete the system 
before the March 2009 local elections, Turel had the entire 
system built at once, shutting down major streets in the city 
center for months.  Most of the shops were virtually 
inaccessible to customers, and were forced to close.  The 
shop owners became the most vocal opponents of Turel's 
re-election campaign.  The light rail system, the debt 
incurred to finance it, and the city's already appalling 
traffic congestion were blamed as the main reasons for the 
AKP's 17-point tumble from a previous 13.6 point lead over 
the CHP in 2004 to a 3.9 point loss to the CHP in 2009. 
Today, the streets that were shut down during construction 
remain basically shuttered and the system is minimally used 
by travelers. 
 
¶5. (U) PM Erdogan's Davos outburst led to a precipitous 
decline in Israeli tourists (182,177 in 2009, down from 
330,153 in 2008).  The media speculated that the ensuing 
 
ANKARA 00000303  002 OF 003 
 
 
losses by the tourism sector in Antalya might also have been 
a factor in AKP's loss.  But our sources disputed this, 
insisting that the light rail fiasco loomed largest. 
 
¶6. (C) AKP Provincial Chairman Huseyin Semani contended to us 
that now that the AKP is out of power, people are beginning 
to appreciate what they lost.  Semani claimed that the new 
CHP Mayor, Mustafa Akaydin, has been so saddled with debt 
that he has been unable to pay his workers' salaries or 
provide any services.  In a separate meeting with us, CHP 
Deputy Mayor Kadir Alkis agreed that the mayor was struggling 
to move forward after seeking a restructuring of their debt. 
But he was sanguine that Akaydin's plan to move ahead with 
harmonization of the city's transportation system, along with 
projects to increase the use of solar power and fund more 
universities, would earn him lasting support. 
 
Good News: Unemployment, Informal Employment Low 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶7. (U) Many of those we spoke with complained about 
unemployment.  However, Deputy Governor Mehmet Seyman and 
Tamer Ozkan, director of Turkey's Employment Office in 
Antalya, both noted that unemployment in Antalya is always 
lower than the national average -- even in low season. 
Currently the national unemployment rate is between 12 and 13 
percent, whereas unemployment in Antalya hovers between 8 and 
9 percent.  Ozkan added that both the EU and UNDP are setting 
up employment programs in Antalya.  Seyman estimated that the 
agricultural sector occupies about 10 percent of Antalya's 
economy, while the other 90 percent was taken up by the 
services sector.  In the services sector, he estimated that 
about 70 percent is in tourism. 
 
¶8. (U) Antalya still receives many visitors during the 
off-peak season of November to March.  Osman Ayik, Board 
member for TUROFED, said it is working with the Ministry of 
Culture and Tourism to attract convention groups and sports 
teams -- more than 1,500 of which already come during low 
season to train.  TUROFED is also lobbying the GOT to 
subsidize the low-season employment of services sector 
workers.  Many hotel industry employees that would otherwise 
be laid off during low season receive training from Is-Kur at 
that time.  Ozkan said that in January Is-Kur had around 
2,000 people in training in 25 courses.  In 2009, Is-Kur 
trained 5,000 people in total, 70 percent of whom got jobs in 
the services sector afterwards, mostly working in hotels. 
 
¶9. (C) When asked whether Antalya's informal employment was 
near the estimated national average of 40 percent, both 
Ozkan, and Ministry of Labor Chief Inspector Olcay Aydin, 
contended that informal employment is surprisingly low -- 
around 5-10 percent -- and is primarily centered on 
international women illegally working in prostitution or 
undeclared migrant laborers in the small agricultural sector. 
 Aydin said that an inspector had recently fined a company 
40,000 TL (approximately $27,000) for informally employing 
migrant workers in greenhouse farming.  The fine served as an 
effective deterrent for other employers in the agricultural 
sector. 
 
Bad News: Unionization Also Low, Despite Bad Conditions 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶10. (C) Murat Pilevne, President of both the local chapter of 
the services union Hizmet-Is, and the local branch of the 
Hak-Is labor confederation, said in the past five years 
Hizmet-Is grew from 400 to 1,600 active members, but they are 
only present in one of the six districts of Antalya due to 
low funding.  He painted a bleak picture for organized labor 
in Antalya.  He estimated that the three unions that 
represent the services sector -- Belediye-Is, Hizmet-Is, and 
Genel-Is -- had a total of 4,900 active members in Ankara. 
Antalya's population is estimated at around 1 million and its 
 
ANKARA 00000303  003 OF 003 
 
 
workforce at around 600,000, he noted, which would mean about 
0.9 percent union membership in the services sector, which is 
low "even for Turkey."  Pilevne said that Mayor Akaydin had 
not paid salaries to over 2,500 municipal workers for more 
than four months, even though Law 4857 says if a municipality 
owes pay to workers it cannot make real expenditures.  Also, 
he said, with legal caps for hiring lowering the number of 
municipal workers that can be employed by the Mayor, more 
services are being contracted out to "temporary" workers, who 
perform the same work but have no right to organize and 
receive no severance pay.  As a result, Pilevne said, there 
is pent-up demand for organizing.  He had personally 
witnessed terrible working conditions for around 2,000 
workers in the services sector.  "People beg us to organize 
them," he said. "But since their employers are threatening 
layoffs, they're doing hard work like spraying pesticides and 
cleaning with harsh chemicals with no protection for minimum 
wage." 
 
¶11. (C) Unions face typical barriers to organizing in 
Antalya, including Turkey's 10 percent minimum membership 
threshold for a union to be able to collectively bargain in 
an industry, and the requirement that employees certify their 
intent to join a union with a notary, who often informs the 
employer about the activity.  As a result, unions have 
minimal penetration in Antalya and are ineffective. 
Hizmet-Is and Hak-Is strive to work more closely with 
employers than other unions and confederations, attempting to 
negotiate better results with fewer clashes, Pilevne said. 
But when they cannot make progress on the workers' demands, 
it hurts their morale.  He lamented that the unions and 
confederations do not engage  with the Hotel Association, but 
stick to routine organizing tactics, keeping their numbers 
low. 
 
¶12. (C) COMMENT:  It was not surprising that the AKP's advice 
from Ankara to build a tramway to nowhere failed to resonate 
with the local population.  Mayor Turel, although popular in 
Ankara and experienced in making infrastructure improvements, 
should have listened to the chorus of protest that continued 
for months after he announced his plan to build a downtown 
train system.  It is a little surprising, however, to learn 
that unemployment is so low in this highly seasonal economy. 
The rates on informal employment may need to be taken with a 
grain of salt, as informal employment is notoriously hard to 
measure, and labor inspectors can only inspect places of 
business that employ 50 people or more -- many of Antalya's 
hotels are small.  The warm climate, low unemployment rate, 
and bustling summer months are likely to continue to attract 
Turks to relocate to Antalya for employment or retirement. 
While the Turkish Federation of Hoteliers has succeeded in 
attracting tourists to Antalya, unions have some catching up 
to do to ensure that hotel employees work in humane 
conditions and receive a decent wage. 
Jeffrey 
 
           "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s 
gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"