Turkish Workers, Union Protest Sackings at Former SEKA Paper Mill

For over the past month, 200 workers at a paper mill in Giresun on the Black Sea in northeastern Turkey have picketed their worksite. The daily protests are just one further example of what can happen to workers when an enterprise is privatised.

The Giresun newsprint mill had been operated by state-owned Turkiye Seluloz ve Kagit Fabrikalari (SEKA), a company that was privatized a few short years ago. A paper distributor called MILDA bought this SEKA mill.

In late spring, with working conditions deteriorating and salaries not being paid on time for five consecutive months, workers joined ICEM affiliate Seluloz-Is, the paperworkers’ union in the country. As soon as managers learned of the unionization, wages that were due were paid but they demanded that workers quit the union.

When workers rejected this, MILDA fired 250 of the 286-member workforce and closed the mill. This occurred on 15 June 2007. Seluloz-Is President Ergin Alsan has met with management, but they have used the excuse that lack of raw materials has resulted in the closure, not unionization.

 The fact that 250 workers who signed up with different were sacked says differently.

Each day, the workers picket and protest MILDA’s unfair dismissals. They are helped out financially by other unions in the region, as well as by NGOs in the area.

The ICEM will continue to monitor the plight of these victimized paperworkers and assist them in any possible as their struggle continues.