Union member? You are fired!
by editor | 16th June 2010 7:38 am
Three women workers have started their struggle in Çorlu/Tekirda? after being dismissed from their workplace, Ye?il Kundura, because – so the dismissal letter goes – of the economic crisis. The reality is different though: the women claim they were dismissed because of their being union members. Supported by organized union companions and colleagues, the women stated that they will keep their struggle going until they will be reinstated in their workplace. The women said to ANF; “Even the mosque imam tried to convince us not join the union.”
Kezban Elmas, Dilek ?enkal and Dilek Kurtulu? have been protesting for 19 days in front of their factory.
Their action is supported also by the Union of Leader Workers. Women workers stated that they were having difficulties under heavy working conditions and couldn’t get any bonus for a long time. They became union members on 17 May and they were dismissed 10 days later by the company which employs nearly 400 people. Union of Leader Workers’ Chairman Musa Servi recalled that the employer called the police many times claiming that women were blocking the factory entrance and preventing workers to get in. Servi stated that they offered a meeting with the employer who exposes workers to abject conditions but couldn’t get any reply back. Visiting workers at fight place, Servi spoke as follows; “Being an union member is a constitutional right. Nobody can be deprived of its union right. As a union, we will always be with our members during their struggle. We will try ways to come to terms with the employer. If we don’t get a favorable result, we will apply the appropriate judicial procedures.”
It is stated that the Ye?il Company, which have branches in many places of Turkey and employs thousands, is financed by Islamic capital. Producing shoes also for military, Ye?il has nearly 50 branches throughout Turkey. According to union figures, 200 thousand people work at leader sector. While many working places apply subsistence wage and heavy working conditions, 17 percent of the workers are union members. The factories are intensively built in industrial zones like Çorlu, ?stanbul, Gönen, ?negöl and Tuzla and a big majority of workers are deprived of social rights.
Source URL: https://globalrights.info/2010/06/union-member-you-are-fired/