Farplas is the latest example of these attempts to prevent union organizing. Workers at dozens of factories have experienced the same problem last year. In dozens of workplaces, people set out to unionize, to become DISK members, risking their jobs and defending their rights against all attacks. It’s not just the employer who’s assaulting them. Those who claim to run this country are acting with the same mentality. A month ago, there was a murder here, a crime against humanity. We’re here to expose those responsible for that. On this roof, riot police attempted murder by charging towards resisting workers and provoking them to “throw themselves from the roof.”
DISK management’s solidarity visit to Farplas workers: #FarplasİscisiYalnızDeğildir
Confederation of Progressive Labor Unions DISK’s President Arzu Çerkezoglu was at Gebze Automotive Supply Industry OSB to visit the confederation management and member workers of affiliated trade unions and Farplas workers in resistance against low wages.
The resistance of Farplas workers, organized by the United Metal Trade Union of the DISK confederation, for their right to organize, continues as DISK’s leaders declare full support for the workers’ defiance.
DISK management visits Farplas workers
Today, DISK President Arzu Çerkezoglu met with the confederation’s leadership and affiliated trade unions at Gebze Automotive Supply Industry Specialized Zone OSB, to support the workers’ resistance.
Hundreds of workers supported the protest, and workers filled the area to join the rally.
Speaking at the protest, United Metal Business President and DISK Secretary-General Adnan Serdaroglu began his speech by greeting the workers who came to the solidarity rally. Noting that workers in Turkey have the greatest difficulties in organizing, Serdaroglu’s expressed:
Farplas is the latest example of these attempts to prevent union organizing. Workers at dozens of factories have experienced the same problem last year. In dozens of workplaces, people set out to unionize, to become DISK members, risking their jobs and defending their rights against all attacks. It’s not just the employer who’s assaulting them. Those who claim to run this country are acting with the same mentality. A month ago, there was a murder here, a crime against humanity. We’re here to expose those responsible for that. On this roof, riot police attempted murder by charging towards resisting workers and provoking them to “throw themselves from the roof.”
It’s been 55 years since this factory was built. A company that has reached billions of liras of assets from a small workshop to a huge company today. How did they do it? With the workers’ hard work, their labor. They did it by stealing labor.
The government, which announced the minimum wage of 4,250 liras by propagandizing it for days, faced the rallies and the protest of workers all over Turkey a month later. That minimum wage is at the level of starvation today. Farplas workers also responded with their protest against the employer by shouting, “Enough is enough.” This is the same employer who for years prevented unionization against working with minimum wage.
Upon hearing that the workers were organized in DISK, the employer reneged all the previous promises and went on to terminate the employment contracts of all workers.
Political power complies with the employer’s unlawful practices
Speaking after Serdaroglu, DISK President Arzu Çerkezoglu stated that political power is complicit in the matter by remaining silent on the unlawful practices of employers.
At Farplas our colleagues exercised their most basic and constitutional right to be unionized. They became members of our unions, they became DISK workers. Because they wanted to be able to make their own decisions about their working and living conditions. Our colleagues who had worked at Farplas for many years and who were highly senior, who did their job in the best way, were condemned to work without breaks, without meal breaks, without leaving the machines for a minute, with long working hours and mandatory overtime, and without receiving their fair share. Farplas workers chose to be DISK members because they wanted to see their share of the value they produced.
However, pressure was applied on workers against the most basic right to be unionized. Employers enjoy that power they receive from the political power when they threaten unionized workers and fire them. We know this because we experience the same pressures in all the workplaces DISK tries to organize. In the face of this unlawful attitude of employers, the ministry of labor and the government are, in the lightest sense, complicit in this process by remaining silent.
Sendika.Org News (MB)