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24 October, 2011
The ICEM has come to the aid and support of DERİ-İş, the trade union of Leather Workers of Turkey, and an affiliate of the International Textile, Leather, Garment Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF), both of which have been waging a courageous struggle for trade union rights at two factories of Kampana-Savranoğlu, a maker of leather for the shoe industry.
Workers at factories in İzmir and Istanbul met fierce opposition from the family-owned company when they tried to organize with DERİ-İş. They faced extremely low pay, forced overtime that was off the books, and harmful air quality that left many workers sick. Last March, when workers refused to give up their right to unionisation after coercion by management, the company sacked 16 trade union leaders.
ICEM at 15 October Protest Action Against Kampana-Savranoğlu
This occurred at the 103-worker İzmir factory and immediately all other workers went on a work slowdown. This continued for several months until managers responded in early October by closing the factory and transferring the work – and workers – to the Istanbul factory called Kampana. Management’s had predicted that none of the workers would transfer, thus the company would not have to pay the lawful severance payments and it would be rid of DERİ-İş.
But the ploy backfired when 38 of the strongest union sympathizers took the transfer and joined the workforce at the 49-worker Kampana factory, making the Istanbul factory overcrowded.
The company made no provisions for housing, so after moving to Turkey’s largest city and starting work on 1 October, the 38 İzmir workers began sleeping inside the factory. Management summoned police but after the occupation continued, they sacked the workers on 13 October.
Two days later, DERİ-İş, local NGOs and supporters – including a representative from the ICEM – held a protest action at the house of the Kampana-Savranoğlu owner near Taksim Square.
DERİ-İş is supporting 14 workers and their families and continues a campaign that now numbers 224 consecutive days. The union is waging another long-running fight against DESA, which produces leather for luxury goods with the most prestigious being Prada, the handbag retailer. That campaign has been running for four years.
Through intervention by ITGLWF, DERİ-İş and DESA signed a good-faith protocol agreement in August 2009, but management immediately broke it by targeting and then sacking union members. This included 12 workers from a workplace in Sefakoy, Istanbul, and another two employees last January in Düzce.
A third dispute the Turkish Leather Workers’ Union is fighting is against the company Trexta, which has factories in Cerkezköy, Istanbul, and Sivas, totaling 1,000 mostly women workers. The company produces leather cases and accessories for the mobile phone industry, and supplies to Nokia, Vertu, and Blackberry.
Since July 2011, the company has dismissed 11 members of a union committee. DERİ-İş sought help from ICEM, ITGLWF, and the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) to intervene on Trexta’s customers, particularly Nokia over the Finnish company’s rigid supply-line requirements. IMF wrote and urged Nokia to take the necessary steps to ensure reinstatement and to secure workers’ freedom of association.
The ICEM did likewise, demanding that Nokia take action to protect workers’ rights.
“These three cases in the Turkish leather industry shows that a new Global Union Federation must be an activist organization to protect the rights of workers when they are routinely abused,” stated ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We must be vigilant that violations in any one part of the supply chain will be felt along the entire chain of production.”