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4 June, 2007
The ICEM has demanded that the Turkish parent company of Trakia Glass in Bulgaria intervene to settle a two-week strike at factories in Turgovishte, in the northeast of Bulgaria. Hundreds of glass workers, members of ICEM affiliate National Federation of Chemical Workers – CL Podkrepa, began a strike on 19 May over the company’s failure to keep pace with minimum salary levels, as set by Bulgarian labour code.
Trakia is wholly-owned by Turkish glass and chemicals groups, Şişecam Group. In a letter dated 1 June, ICEM called on Şişecam’s General Director Doğan Arıkan to resolve the dispute immediately in a manner that protects the company’s reputation, as well as respects Bulgaria’s status as a member of the European Union.
“Bulgaria’s membership in the EU assures that its citizens have certain rights and entitlements, and your company’s recent behaviour in Targovishte reflects disdain and disrespect for these rights and entitlements,” wrote ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda to Arikan. “A company headquartered in Turkey, which is now on a course of negotiations toward EU entry, must and should do better in pursuit of such entry.”
Workers of Trakia are seeking increases in overtime work and night-shift work, increases which were mandated by the country’s minimum monthly salary which took effect 1 May.
Because of the union’s salary demands, during the week of 7 May, Şişecam has suspended a €221.6 million investment at the glass factories, an investment that was to include a second flat glass factory, a second factory for glassware, and additions to processed glass works already operating. The Bulgarian government had made incentives available to the Turkish company, which included road construction and associated infrastructure needs.
Trakia Glass Chief Executive Gulsum Azeri openly states that the investment was suspended until Bulgaria make regressive revisions to its labour legislation, social conduct which the ICEM termed “unacceptable.”
The ICEM Regional Conference for Central Europe, meeting in Hungary on 5 and 6 June 2007, adopted a resolution in support of the striking workers in Bulgaria. To read the resolution, click here.