10 September, 2015A global day of action is set for 16 September, demanding justice for workers sacked for organizing a union at Mulberry’s Turkish supplier SF Leather.
Join the action online (#Justice4MulberryWorkers) or at your local Mulberry store and demand that the luxury handbag and clothing brand lives up to its own 'Global Sourcing Principles'.
SF Leather reacted to its workers organizing into IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate Deriteks by sacking 14 key union supporters on 26 March. When Deriteks rejected the company’s offer in April to reinstate 11 of the 14 on the condition they forget the union, SF Leather aggressively campaigned to crush the organizing drive completely.
Around 90 per cent of the leather purses made by the 190 workers at SF Leather go to Mulberry. Mulberry’s only action has been to hire independent auditing firm, Re-Assurance to conduct an investigation. The auditors have not spoken to the affected workers.
Instead of taking steps to solve the conflict, SF Leather has brought charges against Deriteks. The president of the union’s Izmir Branch, Makum Alagöz, now stands trial for non-compliance with the 26 May impounding of a union banner; the 3 June instruction to stop distributing campaign material online; and using Mulberry’s name in the campaign.
The three demands to Mulberry are:
1) Require that SF Leather immediately drop all court cases against Deriteks Sendika and the SF Leather workers.
2) Require that SF Leather hire back the 14 illegally dismissed workers
3) Require SF Leather to immediately stop all illegal union-busting activities
The IndustriALL-LabourStart campaign has already directed over 10,000 messages to Mulberry in support of the workers’ right to join Deriteks at SF Leather in Izmir.
IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Kemal Özkan states:
“Deriteks’ global trade union supports wholeheartedly the 16 September action and its key demands. Mulberry’s inaction is unacceptable. The company sells high-end purses from SF Leather under the pretext that it respects the workers who made them. Lies.”
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