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4 June, 2007
On 19 May, in a testament to the growing Solidarity now coming to strikers at Novamed in Turkey, 16 energy-sector trade union leaders from Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Belorussia visited picket lines in the Antalya Free Trade Zone.
Eighty-four strikers have been out since 26 September 2006, protesting the medical equipment company’s harsh and unusual practices. Novamed, part of German-based Fresenius Medical Care, has refused to recognise ICEM Turkish affiliate Petrol-Iş.
ROGWU President Lev Mironov Addresses Turkish Strikers
Eighty-two of the strikers are women. They have been subjected to inhumane treatment, including being forced to apply for permission from company bosses before becoming pregnant.
The delegation from Eastern Europe and Central Asia came to Turkey following discussion and prominence of the strikers’ plight at the ICEM’s Executive Committee meetings earlier in May. They were greeted at the picket line by Petrol-Iş General Secretary Mustafa Cavdar and other leaders of Turkey’s dominant oil and chemical workers’ union.
In thanking the trade union leaders, Petrol-Iş President Mustafa Oztaskin stated that their presence is a solid reminder that “this is a struggle backed by the whole trade union movement throughout the world.” The strikers heard from Lev Mironov, president of the Russian Oil and Gas Workers’ Union (ROGWU); Melik Mirzoyev, general secretary of the ICEM’s Interregional Oil and Gas Workers’ Federation; and Jahangir Aliyev, general secretary of the Oil and Gas Workers’ Union of Azerbaijan.
Other leaders visiting the picket line on 19 May included: Yelena Mustafina, Oil and Gas Workers’ Union of Kazakhstan; Nikolay Stratila, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Union of Moldova; Yuriy Rovda, Belarus Petrol Gaz İşçileri Sendikasi Başkani; Ludmila Hrushetskaya, Belarus Mining and Oil Workers’ Union; and Tamara Bashuk, Ludmila Chubaryan, Natalya Navmova, Hasipat Hugayeva, Rostislav Zagorodniy, Vera Shchukine, Larisa Lukiyanova, Ludmila Brovkina, and Aleksander Vasiliyev, all of ROGWU.
