Workers at an automotive parts factory near Istanbul occupied their workplaces to defend their rights

On 31 January, workers from the FARPLAS automotive parts factory, located in the industrial zone near the town of Gebze, some 55 kilometers east of the center of the metropolis of Istanbul, occupied their workplaces as a protest against the ongoing repressions of the factory’s owners. 

This radical form of protest came about after the owners of the plant fired more than 100 workers who had joined the leftist – reformist Birleşik Metal – İş trade union. 

Workers at a machine-building plant in southern Turkey went on strike against an unfair collective agreement

Workers at the ÇİMSATAŞ machine-building plant in the city of Mersin, southern Turkey, were the first to openly express their discontent against the new collective agreement which disadvantages all workers in the metallurgy, metalworking, and machine-building sectors.

Women workers at a wholesale market in southern Turkey have achieved partial success after striking

Women workers at a wholesale market in southern Turkey have achieved partial success after striking

On 6 January, nearly 200 female workers from the wholesale vegetable market in the city of Tarsus, Mersin province, in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, stopped work for not being paid a decent wage for their labor.

The general strike of January 3-4, 1991

The resistance of miners from the Zonguldak province, northwestern Turkey, which marked 1991, was not a resentment that erupted spontaneously. It was a revolt against the hundreds of victims and thousands wounded in the mines. It was a revolt against the ANAP(a neo-liberal fascist party that ruled Turkey in 1980s and 1990s) government, which wanted to drop the burden of the imperialist war on the people. This revolt was the revolt of the working class and of all peoples of Turkey, which was silenced and oppressed by the fascist military junta that came to power after the September 12, 1980 coup.

Workers from a household appliance factory in Istanbul protest against obstruction of free trade union association

On November 18, a group of workers from the Sinbo household appliance plant, located in Istanbul’s Avcılar district, began a protest in a tent camp in front of the plant’s building. The action of the workers aims to oppose the repressions of the owners of the factory against the free trade union association at the workplace. A specific reason for the start of the protests was the forced unpaid leave of workers from the plant carrying out association activities in the General Union of Workers in the Automotive and Metalworking Industries (in Turkish Tüm Otomotiv ve Metal İşçileri Sendikası-TÖMİS). The workers hold their protest every day from 06:00 to 17:00.

Workers in a chain of stores for consumer electronics in Turkey are fighting for their rights, despite the repressions of the fascist oligarchy

BİMEKS, one of the largest chains of stores for consumer electronics in Turkey, has closed many of its stores, citing the economic crisis. Then the company launched a dismissal procedure, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs. The workers of the chain were fired without being able to receive any compensation. The 1,500 workers have launched various protests demanding payment of all tens of thousands of Turkish lira due.

Miners from western Turkey: “We have been fighting hunger for years, we are no longer afraid!”

Miners working for Uyar Madencilik mining company, in one of the coal mines around the town of Soma, Manisa province, western Turkey, who tried to march on the capital city Ankara, were stopped by gendarmerie and police. To express their dissatisfaction, they held a protest in front of the district administration building in Soma. One of the miners told reporters: “We are all witnessing the state mobilizing all its forces only against workers seeking their rights. At the same time, the head of the company, Azim Uyar, is protected by the government, and is fiercely defended by it.”

Miners from south Turkey: We do not want alms, but what rightfully belongs to us!

Dear readers, in two serial articles we will try to present to you the struggles of the miners from the towns of Ermenek, southern Turkey, and Soma, western Turkey. Workers in the two towns, known as Turkey’s coal mining centers, have been fighting for months for their unpaid wages and compensations. We believe that their problems are not alien not only to their fellow miners in the rest of the world but also to all the workers who face the exploitation of the capitalists every day.

An employee of a municipal enterprise in Istanbul has been fighting for the rights of his colleagues for months

On June 26th, worker Turan Aktaş renewed his protest in front of the building of municipal administration of Istanbul’s Şişli district, located in the center part of city. Aktaş, who works as a driver for the municipal utility company, was fired late last year after he filed a lawsuit against the municipality, insisting he and dozens of his colleagues could enjoy the same rights as other workers from the enterprise. The worker had temporarily suspended his protest – a sit in protest action, due to the coronavirus pandemic, but decided to continue it. Turan Aktaş is supported by the Workers ‘Council of Şişli district, which is part of the Revolutionary Workers’ Movement(in Turkish Devrimci İşçi Hareketi), the trade union organization of the People’s Front-Turkey. Below we present to our readers a translation of the text of a statement issued by the worker Turan Aktaş, in which he briefly describes the reasons for his protest.

The 22-month protest culminated in victory – the story of worker Turkyan Albayrak

For 22 months, female worker Turkan Albayrak has been struggling on the streets of Istanbul to return to her job, from which she was unfairly fired, in the summer of 2018. She reaffirmed the truth of the words: “The one who fights wins in the end.” Turkan Albayrak has returned to her job at the Health Directorate of the District Governor’s office of Istanbul’s Sarıyer district.

On August 5, 2018, Turkan Albayrak was fired after failing to pass the so-called “security check-in files and in the archives”, which is a check of “loyalty” of employees in municipal and state organizations in Turkey. It was introduced in 2018 as a method of repression by the fascist government, after in the period 2016-2017 tens of thousands of civil servants were fired under the decree-laws issued during the state of emergency which was formally in force until July 2018.

Turkan Albayrak lost her job without being paid her statutory benefits upon termination of her employment contract. On September 3, 2018, Albayrak began her struggle for her job, which lasted for 22 months, despite the difficult conditions in which she finds herself. Despite police attacks, arrests, and difficult conditions, Albayrak has repeatedly stated, “I want my job back, I’m not a criminal,” demonstrating her determination to fight. After her struggle culminated in victory, she declared: “The fact that we can fight fascism and win new victories makes me happy.”

Turkan Albayrak says that passers-by around the place where she held her protest watched her from afar, but could not do anything because of the threats of the police, “People were happy to see that I was protesting because I was doing something that many also wanted to do but not everyone could do. In the first days of my protest, my colleagues sat on benches in the park where I held my protest action, but later the police started chasing everyone out of the park before my protest began. Some of the passers-by around expressed their dissatisfaction while the police detained me, some even tried to stop them from detaining me, but the police threatened to detain them together with me.

Albayrak says people around her rejoiced when her protest was crowned with victory, “In fact, the real reason for their joy is not that I will return to work, but that I have become a hope for them. With my victory, people saw what they had to do when their rights were taken away.”

Turkan Albayrak, who has been fighting in the squares and streets for her job for 22 months, is one of the clear examples in our country at this difficult time that struggle and resistance can bring victory. She won her rights by fighting for 641 days in the squares to regain her rights, which were taken away from her completely illegally. Albayrak has become a source of hope for the people around her, showing them that if they fight they can win. The spread of just protests, and the participation in them, will contribute to the growth of the struggle for rights and justice. And this in turn will lead to the collapse of the fascist government …

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Source: Gerçek News Agency (Gerçek Haber Ajansı) www.gercekhaberajansi.org