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14 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 17/2004
A mass rally in the city of Izmit underscored the unease of the Turkish government's continued insistency to intervene on the side of employers in a labour dispute.
Some 10,000 members and supporters of ICEM affiliate Lastik-Is march and rallied 24 March against both severe concessions proposed by tyre manufacturers and Turkey's decree of 21 March banning a strike by the country's petrol, chemical and rubber union, citing that such a strike would be a threat to "national security."
Leaders of Lastik-Is at 24 March rally in Izmit
The union and multinational tyre producers Goodyear, Pirelli and Brisa Bridgestone Sabanci entered collective bargaining in December for renewal of labour agreements covering 4,000 workers at six tyre factories. But the negotiations proved one-sided at the outset as the employers presented a set of concessionary demands and refused good-faith bargaining.
Lastik-Is issued a call to strike for 22 March at Turkey's largest tyre producer, Italian-based Pirelli in Izmit. But a day prior, the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued the decree under Article 33 of Turkey's Law on Collective Agreements, Strikes and Lockouts.
It was the third consecutive set of negotiations since year 2000 that the Turkish government has used Article 33 to prohibit a strike in the tyre industry.
Earlier, ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs wrote the prime minister and warned that prohibiting the right to strike violated ILO Conventions 87, 98 and 158, core labour principles that Turkey has ratified.
"Tyre employers have made unacceptable demands on Lastik-Is," said Higgs in his letter. "Such demands, if imposed, would lower the living standards and increase the work-life burdens of workers in the industry, thus reducing working terms and conditions in this particular sector to far below those of European standards."
In the tyre producers only exchange with the union, employers seek to remove paid health insurance from workers, seek an increase in working hours by changing shift schedules and seek the unlimited use of temporary workers. Employers also want a separate salary structure for new employees, and propose decreases in current salaries and social payments for current employees.
"If the employers want to continue this forced agenda of their demands, then our fight will increasingly continue," said Lastik-Is General President Abdullah Karacan. "I do believe that our will and resolve, together with international solidarity, will be the winner in this dispute."
Meeting in Brussels on 24 March, the governing board of ICEM, the Presidium, pledged full support to affiliate Lastik-Is and issued a call to all global affiliates to protest the government's decree in protest letters to Prime Minister Erdogan.