International Transport Workers' Federation to hold a protest against pressure on TUMTIS union members
Trade unions in over 40 cities worldwide will demonstrate their solidarity with sacked Turkish UPS workers tomorrow, September 1, in an action day coordinated by the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation), PortNews reports citing ITF.
The international protest is being held in response to reported intimidation and sackings of workers who opted to join Turkey’s TÜMTIS trade union. Since April 2010, 157 employees of UPS Turkey have been dismissed without any application of the procedures specified by Turkish law. All of the dismissed workers are union members or were interested in union representation. On 2 July 2010, the conflict escalated even further when the manager of a sub-contractor fired shots at the office of a notary public in Izmir where, union representatives reported, he had been trying to force workers to resign their union membership
TÜMTIS President Kenan Ozturk explained: “UPS workers in Turkey face aggression. International support will send a clear message to UPS that anti-union activity is not acceptable. Global workers' solidarity can help to defeat an attack by employers.”
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “Trade unionists - especially those working for UPS in other countries - are taking action to show that this type of intimidatory behaviour is not acceptable in the company they work for.”
He continued: “We welcome recent mediation efforts from the UPS headquarters in Atlanta and Brussels to address this ongoing and unpleasant situation, and hope that the managers in Turkey will pay attention to their colleagues’ concerns. If those Turkish managers choose not to do so, then we will prepare for further worldwide action in a second global day on September 15th.”
