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1 December, 2008
Fourteen Turkish trade unions, comprising the ICEM Coordinating Committee of Turkey, met in Ankara on 20 November and formulated an ambitious agenda related to union-building activities.
Led by the ICEM Secretariat, Turkey’s leading trade union officials agreed to an Organising and Social Dialogue Project, sponsored by the global arm of the Dutch national labour center, FNV Mondiaal; they agreed to launch a cross-border series of solidarity activities with Iraqi unions; and they agreed to begin a campaign on getting Turkey’s government to ratify ILO Convention 176, the Safety and Health in Mines Convention.
The meeting was hosted by Tes-İş, the Turkish Energy, Water, and Gas Workers’ Union, and chaired by Mustafa Kumlu, the union’s President, who also serves on the ICEM Executive and is President of Turkish national labour center Türk- İş. He addressed the negative effects brought on by the global financial crisis inside Turkey’s industrial sectors.
Tes-İş President, Mustafa Kumlu
ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and Chemicals and Rubber Officer Kemal Özkan presented the two-year FNV Mondiaal project for Turkey and the necessity for ratification of Convention 176. Later, Türkiye Maden-İş, the largest mining union in Turkey, agreed to lead the ratification effort.
The project will consist of eight activities in which 500 trade unionists will come together to begin recruitment exercises, create proper workers’ representation systems within workplaces, and to develop techniques to establish constructive bargaining and social dialogue practices with employers.
In Coordinating Committee business, Turkish union leaders decided to establish a technical committee to prepare background information to the full committee. Besides Tes-İş and Türkiye Maden-İş, other trade unions participating included: Çimse-İş, Cement, Ceramics, Pottery, and Glass Workers’ Union; Belediye- İş, the Municipal and General Workers’ Union; Petrol-İş, Oil and Chemical Workers’ Union; Genel Maden-İş, representing Mine Workers; and Dev Maden-Sen, another union representing Mine Workers.
Participants at ICEM's Coordinating Committee
Also, Lastik-İş, Petroleum and Rubber Workers’ Union; ESM, or the Energy, Industry, and Mining Union of Public Employees; Selüloz-İş, Pulp, Paper and Paper Products Union; Kristal-İş, Glass, Cement, Ceramic and Soil Workers’ Union; Türk-Enerji-Sen, the Energy, Mine, Metal, Petroleum and Chemistry Branch Employees’ Union; Tümka-İş, the All Pulp and Paper Workers’ Union; and Türk Tarim Orman-Sen, a Union of agricultural, forestry, and environmental services’ workers.
The ICEM Secretariat delegation also received commitments from Çimse-İş and Kristal-İş to co-host ICEM’s 2009 World Conference for the Materials Industry. Also attending the Coordinating Committee meeting was Michael Mersmann, head of the International Department of German affiliated union, IGBCE.