Zonguldak workers affected by collective bargaining between EnerjiSA and TES-İş protested against TES-İş union Chairman Ersin Akma at the Zonguldak Branch General Assembly of the pro-business TES-İş. The question of “Who signed for the collective bargaining?” was left unanswered by the union boss Akma. The yellow union chairman Akma was protested with a banner that read “Luxury condominium in Istanbul, Mercedes car, hillside house overlooking the Bosphorus, how much did you sell us for?”
Big Win for the pro-labor, progressive, Energy Workers’ Union in Turkey. Workers en mass are leaving the yellow unions to join a fighting organization
The Energy sector workers are quitting the pro-business, yellow, TES-İş union and joining the Enerji-Sen at the Confederation of Progressive Labor Unions. This massive transfer has won the Enerji-Sen union to have enough members throughout the country to pass a required threshold to be able to hold collective bargaining meetings with businesses. Current members of Enerji-Sen are now 1.31% of all energy sector workers.
Announcing their right to negotiate under the labor law, the Enerji-Sen progressive union declared, “We didn’t purchase our members, we didn’t make deals with the bosses to force workers to become our members. We called for the struggle, we overcame the barriers together!”
How workers abandoned the yellow union and joined the Enerji-Sen to fight the bosses.
After the current ruling Erdoğan’s AKP party privatized the energy distribution services, dozens of private companies, large and small, were launched throughout the country. Thousands of workers were sentenced to work below the poverty line after the workers lost their public worker status and their wages were slashed in the process. Due to privatization, the minimum wages for the energy workers that should be 5200 TL in today’s figures are now around 3500-3800 TL.
Ignoring the problems of the energy workers, who worked continuously during the pandemic period, the bosses did not even distribute masks, gloves or other personal protection equipment. The laborers went in and out of hundreds of households every day to perform their duties. Workers who worked on foot all day were victimized during the pandemic-related closing periods because they had nowhere to meet their humanitarian needs like resting, eating, or for toilets. Due to the pandemic, they were squeezed between unemployment, paying bills, and the companies that started laying them off.
Under all these difficult working conditions, the workers who were organized were locked in labor negotiations between the sold-out TES-İş Union and the bosses. Years of buildup have sparked an outburst of outrage, with sunken energy companies reluctant to raise workers’ wages to cut costs and the pro-business union TES-Is allowing them to do so. Workers can no longer be restrained by traditional methods that suppress class struggle, especially with a yellow union, tricks, and deceptions that keep expectations alive. The anger of the energy worker is based on the exploitation of the private energy companies and the pro-business yellow union. The workers now can quit at a moment when everyone else is silent, and the bottled-up anger turns to organizing under an alternative, progressive, and pro-labor union, DISK/Energy-Sen, of the Confederation of Progressive Labor Unions despite all the preventive efforts, including the propaganda against the new union.
A brief summary of the last three months: (as of July 2021)
The spark of the rebellion lit up on April 30
When the collective bargaining agreement negotiations between Bosphorus Electricity Distribution INC (BEDAŞ) and the union TES-İş failed, it was up to the High Arbitral Tribunal to decide the contract. During the talks, TES-Is demanded a 30 percent increase, while the boss offered 15 percent. A decision from the Supreme Arbitral Tribunal (YHK) came with a 6 percent increase in the first 6 months and a 5 percent increase in the second 6 months.
Following the YHK’s decision, nearly 2,000 energy sector workers protested and stopped work in front of BEDAŞ’s offices in Caglayan on April 30th. When full shut-downs due to pandemics began across the country the workers were still forced to work. Workers who said they did not accept anything less than a 30 percent increase also reacted to the fact that the TES-Labor union representing them did not take an effective stance when “misery wages” were offered.
Nearly 2,000 energy workers quit in BEDAŞ against “misery pay”
Although the close ties of Bedaş boss Cengiz-Kolin’s partnership with the government have turned the struggle into a difficult political fight, the workers who said, “We have no patience left anymore” expressed their determination in the fight against the company and against the yellow union.
Poll shows 72% agree to switch to Energy Sen.
After Tes-İs’s pro-boss actions, the workers discussed how to move on and with an overwhelming 72% vote decided to switch to DISK/Energy-Sen. Bedaş workers gathered at a mass meeting in front of DISK Headquarters, the Confederation of Progressive Labor Unions, on June 7th and joined the pro-labor Energy-Sen en masse.
Cengiz Holding, which wants to prevent Energy-Sen’s organizing move, raised the “operating threshold” and consolidated its plants spread across the country to minimize the workers’ unionization drive by combining BEDAŞ and other energy distribution companies it owns (Çamlıbel AŞ, which operates in Yozgat, Sivas and Tokat, Akden INC, which operates in the Mediterranean).
But the move backfired. The will to organize in the progressive Energy-Sen, initiated by BEDAŞ workers, spread to other enterprises of Cengiz. Hundreds of workers resigned from TES-İş and became members of the Energy-Sen union.
Cengiz is one of the top five corporations that receive nearly all government contracts. It supports the Turkish president in return for contracts and permission for shoddy business practices.
BEDAS workers break yellow union reign and move to DISK/Energy-Sen
Harassment and disinformation did not pay
Cengiz corporation and the yellow union TES-İş made many moves to break the will of the workers to organize in the progressive Energy-Sen. Pressure on workers was increased in the face of workers quitting from TES-Is and their opposition to the “misery wages.” Arrangements and harassments to limit the movements and attempts to control the workers even when they were off work, efforts to eliminate the animosity arising from the rivalry of TES-Is with Hak-İş, another pro-government, yellow union, asking workers to defend themselves against trumped-up charges, etc. came one after the other.
TES-İş tried to prevent the transition to Energy-Sen union by spreading the lie that the union had scored an additional 200 liras (14 dollars) for the workers who stayed with their union. However, even with all these efforts, they could not break the will of the workers.
Boss’s threats and yellow union distractions didn’t pay off: BEDAS workers’ fight against “misery pay” continues
From BEDAŞ to AYEDAŞ, Ankara, Adana, Zonguldak, wave after wave…
The workers of Başkent Elektrik, which is affiliated with EnerjiSA corporation and carries out electricity distribution business in Ankara and Zonguldak, AYEDAŞ on the Anatolian Side of Istanbul and Toroslar Electricity Distribution INC in Adana also reacted to the yellow union by stating that TES-İş left them alone at the collective bargaining table and accepted the boss’s offer despite the workers’ demands.
When the workers learned that the collective bargaining agreement was signed without their knowledge to increase by only 9+7% they marched to the TES-İş union building in Ankara on July 7th and called on the union leadership to resign. Anger for being sold out carried through the door of the building inside and the TES-Is building and echoed with workers’ chants for the union bosses to resign when the workers broke into the building.
EnerjiSA workers lash out at yellow union TES İş over the “misery hike”
In Istanbul, hundreds of workers from AYEDAŞ, which provides energy distribution services to the Anatolian Side, gathered in front of EnerjiSA’s Maltepe building on July 8th. Workers reacted to the secret agreement that kept the wages under the rate of inflation and elected representatives to meet with the management without the yellow TES-İş union representatives.
Energy workers’ revolt over the “misery hike” grows
Claiming that the contracts were not signed but only agreed upon, TES-İş union managers tried back paddling and argued that the workers’ demands would be renegotiated with the company officials.
“TES-Is, how much did you sell us for?”
Energy workers at Kalpr Toroslar Electricity Distribution INC went on strike on July 9th to protest the insufficient pay increase in the collective bargaining agreement signed by the employer and the TES-İş union. Workers gathered in front of the company, saying “we don’t want misery wages.” They refused to go to repairs, meter readings, or operations. The employer tried to break the resistance by having the engineers carry out meter and switching operations on the networks in the city. But the workers did not end their rallies.
Toroslar EDAŞ workers quit against the collective agreement signed without their knowledge: “We are right, we will win!”
Zonguldak workers affected by collective bargaining between EnerjiSA and TES-İş protested against TES-İş union Chairman Ersin Akma at the Zonguldak Branch General Assembly of the pro-business TES-İş. The question of “Who signed for the collective bargaining?” was left unanswered by the union boss Akma. The yellow union chairman Akma was protested with a banner that read “Luxury condominium in Istanbul, Mercedes car, hillside house overlooking the Bosphorus, how much did you sell us for?”
AYEDAŞ worker met with the progressive Energy-Sen union
On July 12, hundreds of AYEDAŞ workers attended the meeting organized by pro-labor Energy-Sen union at Kartal Hasan Ali Yucel Cultural Center. Addressing the workers who stated that they now want a combative union that upholds the interests and will of the workers, DISK/Energy-Sen Leader Suleyman Keskin stated that the rights of energy workers cannot be defended by collective bargaining mechanisms. “We are not telling you that we will negotiate for you. We’re not negotiating. The solution to the problem is in this hall. When the energy worker fights, we are one step ahead of them. If they go on a strike, a strike that is considered not possible, we will carry out that strike together. When we meet with the employer, we will carry out the process not with the representatives appointed from the headquarters, but with the representatives that the worker can choose and recall, and our highest board will be the assembly of those labor representatives.”
Keskin stated that the struggle of the energy worker is Turkey’s struggle as a whole. He added that the energy workers want energy distribution companies to be nationalized as well as receive decent and humane wages and guaranteed work.
Energy workers decided to continue organizing and fighting together with the pro-labor Energy-Sen at the meeting. Bedaş, ISPER and Zondulgak workers were present where the workers both spoke and gave enthusiastic support at the hall.
Sendika.Org News (MB)