Bursagaz workers picket for union rights and the reinstatement of dismissed colleagues
Workers at Bursagaz, the company that supplies natural gas to the entire city of Bursa in Türkiye, have been on the picket line outside the company's headquarters since 10 June, in a growing dispute over union rights.
Bursagaz is owned by Aksa Doğal Gaz and Kazancı Holding, a global energy group with investments across Europe, Africa and Central Asia. Earlier this year, the company's energy workers joined DİSK/Enerji-Sen to demand fair wages and job security. Türkiye's Ministry of Labour confirmed that the union had won a clear majority, giving it the legal right to begin collective bargaining.
But instead of accepting the result, the company has tried to bust the union. The workers say the employer inflated the official headcount on paper by manipulating social security records in order to push the union below the legal threshold. The workers still won their majority.
The company then filed legal objections to delay bargaining. Workers report that managers set up rooms inside the workplace to interrogate staff and pressure them into leaving the union. Management is also trying to transfer employees to a subcontractor—a step the union says is designed to strip them of their rights and cut their pay.
Fifteen union members who led the organising drive have been dismissed, along with a mechanical engineer who supported his colleagues. The sacked workers have been refused severance pay and unemployment benefits. One worker was dismissed, with no compensation, simply for posting about workplace bullying and union-busting on social media.
DİSK/Enerji-Sen argues that the dispute is a direct result of the privatisation of an essential public service. Since the gas network was handed to a private monopoly, both workers and residents have suffered, with staff facing a harsh subcontracting regime and households hit by unfair gas cut-offs.
The workers are now in their second week on the picket line. They have vowed to stay until every dismissed worker is reinstated, the threat of subcontracting is dropped, and their union is recognised.
Sendika News (Kıvanç Eliaçık)
