ANKARA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Around 2,000 workers of a former state alcohol and tobacco monopoly and their families gathered in the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday for a new wave of protest over labor rights, Turkish media reported.

    Thousands of workers of the Tekel company have been protesting in Ankara for a month against the privatization of the company, which obliges workers to either quit their jobs or accept work in another state institution with lower wages and fewer benefits, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News reported on its website.

    The workers launched a three-day sit-in protest in front of the building of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Turk-Is) in Ankara early Friday and will carry out a three-day hunger strike after that, the newspaper said.

    It said a total of 12,000 people are expected to participate in the protest by 4 p.m. (1400 GMT) Friday, when the demonstration is scheduled to start.

    "I condemn government officials who are indifferent to our protests," Turk-Is President Mustafa Kumlu was quoted as saying.

    The workers will extend their hunger strike indefinitely in what they call a "death fast" if the government fails to meet their demands, the newspaper reported.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized previous protests by Tekel workers as "a speculative action against the government," saying the employees would be paid in accordance with their education levels and that efforts were already underway to improve the working conditions.

    Some 10,000 Tekel workers earned money without working and rendered a huge cost for the government, he was quoted by the newspaper as telling reporters in December.

    Global cigarette giant British American Tobacco PLC won an auction for Tekel with a bid of 1.72 billion U.S. dollars in February 2008 and completed the acquisition in June last year.