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15 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 08/2005
An agreement has been reached in Izmit, Turkey, after a 51-day occupation of a Turkish Cellulose and Paper Factories (SEKA) mill by ICEM affiliate Selülöz-Is. The agreement, signed 10 March, brings a long strike to an end with Turkey's government guaranteeing jobs for all 700 workers at wage levels close to what they had earned in the paper mill.
Workers started their uphill and unprecedented anti-privatisation struggle last November following a decree by Turkey's High Commission of Privatisation to shut down the state-run paper mill. The occupation, begun 20 January by workers, family members and many residents of the industrial city of Izmit, served as an important bargaining tool for Selülöz-Is in the union's efforts to keep the mill operating.
Reversing an earlier decision to close the mill, the agreement transfers the employment status of the 700 workers from SEKA to the Municipality of Izmit. Workers were awarded all financial rights due them from Turkey's government and have guaranteed employment contracts at comparable salaries with the municipality.
Selülöz-Is and the municipality will now conduct a joint and extensive technical study to determine if the paper mill is viable. The agreement ending the occupation also cedes land, the facility and all papermaking machinery to the municipality.
Workers voted in favour of the agreement by better than 90%. The negotiated agreement stands as a major improvement from earlier proposals by the government to end the dispute. Those include shuttering the facility, forcing retirement on some 100 workers, and transferring 200 others to SEKA's only other mill, a factory that has not operated in 22 months.
The ICEM credits the resolve of the 700 workers and family members for continuing the occupation against an increasingly restless government. On 18 February, government security forces in armed vehicles appeared ready to break the occupation. But sensing the resoluteness of the 5,000 workers and community allies present that day, authorities ordered the forces to retreat, thus sparing mass brutality.
The ICEM also credits Turkish national labour centers, particularly TURK-IS and DISK, for joining together to support Selülöz-Is and its paperworkers. On 4 March, a united trade union movement called on affiliates to join the occupation in Izmit and the result of that action also was instrumental in reaching the negotiated settlement. Throughout Turkey that day, at the urging of the national centers, thousands of workers occupied their own worksites as a message of solidarity to Izmit paperworkers.
The ICEM, throughout the occupation, generated global attention to a labour dispute that was gaining more and more attention inside Turkey. The 20-million-member global union federation called on its affiliates to support the worker/community resistance to privatisation by writing Turkish ambassadors in their home countries urging them to keep the family-sustaining jobs in Izmit. The result was resounding with more ICEM affiliates responding than on any issue over the past several years.
Workers started their uphill and unprecedented anti-privatisation struggle last November following a decree by Turkey's High Commission of Privatisation to shut down the state-run paper mill. The occupation, begun 20 January by workers, family members and many residents of the industrial city of Izmit, served as an important bargaining tool for Selülöz-Is in the union's efforts to keep the mill operating.
Reversing an earlier decision to close the mill, the agreement transfers the employment status of the 700 workers from SEKA to the Municipality of Izmit. Workers were awarded all financial rights due them from Turkey's government and have guaranteed employment contracts at comparable salaries with the municipality.
Selülöz-Is and the municipality will now conduct a joint and extensive technical study to determine if the paper mill is viable. The agreement ending the occupation also cedes land, the facility and all papermaking machinery to the municipality.
Workers voted in favour of the agreement by better than 90%. The negotiated agreement stands as a major improvement from earlier proposals by the government to end the dispute. Those include shuttering the facility, forcing retirement on some 100 workers, and transferring 200 others to SEKA's only other mill, a factory that has not operated in 22 months.
The ICEM credits the resolve of the 700 workers and family members for continuing the occupation against an increasingly restless government. On 18 February, government security forces in armed vehicles appeared ready to break the occupation. But sensing the resoluteness of the 5,000 workers and community allies present that day, authorities ordered the forces to retreat, thus sparing mass brutality.
The ICEM also credits Turkish national labour centers, particularly TURK-IS and DISK, for joining together to support Selülöz-Is and its paperworkers. On 4 March, a united trade union movement called on affiliates to join the occupation in Izmit and the result of that action also was instrumental in reaching the negotiated settlement. Throughout Turkey that day, at the urging of the national centers, thousands of workers occupied their own worksites as a message of solidarity to Izmit paperworkers.
The ICEM, throughout the occupation, generated global attention to a labour dispute that was gaining more and more attention inside Turkey. The 20-million-member global union federation called on its affiliates to support the worker/community resistance to privatisation by writing Turkish ambassadors in their home countries urging them to keep the family-sustaining jobs in Izmit. The result was resounding with more ICEM affiliates responding than on any issue over the past several years.