Enough is enough!

TURKEY | 03 – 02 – 2011 | Stop the aggression towards the Union members! Reinstate the fired workers immediately! Implement the protocol!

The latest developments in DESA are the concrete evidences of the anti-union attitude of the DESA employer. For a long time, our Union was criticizing the employer for not obeying to the rules of the Protocol, which was signed on 24.07.2009 as a consequence of the international campaign and that was the acceptance of the Union as a a social partner and declaration of being kind to the freedom of organization of the Union members. However by the latest attacks over the rights of organization of our members, DESA employer teared the Protocol and abolished the agreement.

On 29^th of January, 2011; two members from Duzce factory were fired as a result of a plot. Duzce is situated 2.5 hours away from Istanbul on the way of Ankara and DESA has its second largest factory with over 600 workers in Duzce. Our Union has an organizational power in this factory. As a consequence of the existence of our Union in the factory and our members’ ability to act collectively; employer was disturbed and tried to break this organization for a long time. In October 2010, they had an attempt to fire a member however they had to reinstate our member when our members acted together. However there has been systematic psychological pressure-mobbing over our members in the work place. Insulting, starring, taking photo of our members, standing all day beside our members, checking and reporting our members’ attitudes, measuring the performance very frequently were some of the examples of the mobbing. Our members were protesting these cases commonly and complaining to the Court.

Our Union members were informing us that the employer tries to find reasons to fire our vanguard members. These insults and other kinds of pressure were to provoke our members and cause a fight and this fight would be a “just” reason for the employer to fire our members.  Our members were resisting against these aggressive attitudes and Union was informing national and international public about the aims of the employer.

For a long time, the performances of our members have been measured very frequently. This frequency is only directed to our members and that non-members are measured very rarely. Also after the measurement, administration demands from our members to sign the measurement document however they were not filling all the columns of the document, so that our members protested this for not letting them to fill the rest without the approval of our members, refused to sign and demanded from the administration to fill all the columns and after they would sign.

Later, our 5 members were called to the Board of Discipline and demanded an explanation about their reason for not signing documents of performance measurement. Our 5 members were given admonition because of not having sufficient performance and for calling other workers to riot. Our members gave a response to the Board that there are discriminatory policies in the work place between the members and non-members, it is not just to only measure the performances of the members, the real attempt of the administration is to find a reason to fire member workers, administration should fill all the columns of the document of measurement before signing it, because it is possible to manipulate through the empty spaces and mentioned that these are examples of mobbing. On 28^th of January, the administration answered our members and refused their arguments and told that they measure all workers’ performances which is a clear lie.

The administration also mobilize pro-boss workers to provoke our members. A well-known pro-boss worker, Resul Karduz was constantly insulting to our members and our Union in the work place. One month ago, when he insulted to our member, Hakan LERMI, our member went to the Court and complained about him and the administration. On 28^th of January, Resul Karduz again disturbed and insulted our members and our members once again complained to the administration. However administration refused to solve the problem. Then Resul KARDUZ took a health report for 3 days and claimed that he was beaten by our members and went to the Court for criminal complaint about our 5 members (Hakan Lermi, Reyhan Ustunel, Fatih Ozturk, Serdar Kuru, Davut Kara) Our members refused these claims. The employer, Burak Celet, called our members to his office one by one but our members refused to go alone, demanded to go at least 2 people in order to have a witness.

Then Gendarme came to the factory and our five members were taken under custody. Our members had similar complaints about the administration for many times but in none of them,

gendarme intervened, however gendarme came very rapidly about this plot when employer calls. Under the custody, our members refused these claims and they were left free because of not having any evidence.

After leaving the custody, the administration called our two members, Hakan LERMI and Sedat KURU, and declared that they were fired because of not obeying to the discipline in the work place, not having sufficient performance and attacking over Resul Karduz.

The Employer tries to break the organizational power of the workers in the work place by organizing plots against our members in order to show to the public that Union members do not work sufficiently and they create problems in work place. However our members are very careful in not failing to these provocations and they act collectively. Their collective attitude and their usage of protests and legal complaints were forcing DESA to write plots.

DESA is the biggest brand in Turkish leather industry and has an aim to be world brand in 10 years. DESA works together with many international brands such as Prada, Mulberry, Samsonite, Aerosoles but despite their ambition to be a first class brand, they refuse to implement ILO standards in the work place and is not kind to the freedom of organization of the workers.

This could also be seen in DESA’s Sefakoy factory that 9 workers were fired because of being Union members on 17.01.2011 and 3 relatives of our members were also fired. DESA offered these workers huge amount of money to leave the resistance place and they could be successful in taking advantage of the poverty of many of them. DESA employers can spend ten thousands of euros in one day in order to stop spreading of the Union activities to other factories.

We call for immediate international solidarity for DESA workers. We should act together to force DESA to implement the protocol, obey to the ILO norms and stop discrimination towards the Union members. Our Union will continue its struggle for the well beings of our members.

DERİ-İS International Office