Turkish union federation to call general strike after police raid

ISTANBUL | Sat Jun 15, 2013 4:43pm EDT

(Reuters) - One of Turkey's main public sector labor unions said it would call a general strike for Monday after riot police stormed an Istanbul park, firing tear gas and percussion bombs to evict hundreds of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday.

"We had already taken a decision to go on strike if there was an intervention on the park. So tomorrow we will declare a strike for Monday," said Mustafa Turgut, spokesman of the Public Workers Unions Confederation (KESK), which has some 240,000 members in 11 unions.

A second union grouping, the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DISK), was holding an emergency meeting on whether to also call a strike, a DISK official told Reuters.