LABOR NEWS FROM TURKEY 8/20/94
Labor Video Project
lvpsf at igc.apc.org
Mon Sep 19 23:55:34 BST 1994
From: Labor Video Project <lvpsf>
/* Written 3:51 PM Sep 19, 1994 by lvpsf in igc:labr.turkey */
/* ---------- "LABOR NEWS FROM TURKEY 8/20/94" ---------- */
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LABOR NEWS FROM TURKEY
August 20, 1994
Compiled from a collection of newspapers, magazines and news
reports.
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COAL WORKERS FORCED TO RETIRE, FORM LONG LINES IN FRONT OF
SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICES
2392 Coal Workers who were forced to retire formed long
lines in front of the Social Security offices and demanded that
their retirement process be completed by filling all the
necessary papers out.
The Social Security office could not handle the large number
of requests filed by the workers and the work at the offices came
to a stop.
Ozgur Ulke
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HOSPITAL VISIT FROM ARAS CARGO WORKERS
The resistance is at its 33 day at Aras Cargo where the
workers resisting the lay offs marched together to the hospital
with their co-workers who are still employed.
The workers gathered in front of the Aras Cargo branch
management. Heavy security measures were to be seen at the site.
Here, the resisting workers were joined by their co-workers who
demanded a hospital visit slip from the management which is
required for any health problems the workers may experience.
First the management refused to provide any hospital visit slips
to the workers. When workers insisted, the slips were finally
made available. From here, the workers marched to the Social
Security Health Clinic.
Abidin Yilmaz, the representative for Ankara branch of
Nakliyat-Is (Transportation workers Union) held a press
conference at the door of the Aras Cargo and said that their
friends had been fired because they were members of the union.
Yilmaz said the bosses are scared of organized workers as if it
was death, but, he continued, being scared will not prevent
dying.
Yilmaz said the bosses had started new tactics to scare the
workers. The workers are being followed and threatened by
plainclothes security guards who impersonate police officers.
Yilmaz also said, "The basic right to work and to organize is
being prevented at Aras Cargo by some street gangster tactics."
Ozgur Ulke
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POLICE ATTACKS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
Police have arrested 35 workers after raiding the
construction site of Garanti Koza Insaat at Kilyos, Istanbul,
where 4,000 workers are employed.
The raid started at 4:00 AM when around 600 gendarmerie
troops who surrounded the construction site together with
plainclothes and uniformed police. After gathering all the
workers in an open field, the security forces conducted a search
in the workers quarters. A large number of books,cassettes, tape
recorders and personal properties of the workers were
confiscated. The search continued till 10:00 AM. and 35 workers
were arrested and taken to Sariyer police headquarters.
A worker explained the raid and arrests as, "We were able to
organize a lunch boycott and a one day work stoppage about 3 or 4
months ago.
The bosses then built a gendarmerie station right here
inside the construction site. As the 15th of August is nearing
(the 10th anniversary of the start of the armed Kurdish
resistance) the police and the army increased their attacks on
us. When they could not find anything illegal in the search,
they threatened us."
Ozgur Ulke
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THEY RAN AWAY FROM THE STATE TERROR, NOW THEY ARE
UNEMPLOYED
Four families had ran away from Sirnak to Antep when they
could not take the state oppression prevalent in the region. The
security forces had harassed the families number of times by
conducting raids to their homes, arresting family members and
torturing them, because their sons had joined the guerrilla.
Hazim Benek said that their house had been hit with the artillery
fire by the Turkish Army and her husband Ismail Benek, their
visitor Ismail Yaman and his 4 year old daughter Meryem Yaman had
been killed in the attack.
She said there was nothing left behind that she can call a
home back in her village. But, in Antep nobody would employ any
of the 21 people of the Yaman and Benek families because they are
from Sirnak. Now, the families have migrated to South Kurdistan
(in Iraq).
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WORKERS WHO DEMANDED THAT THEY GET PAID ARE FIRED
37 workers who work at minimum wage at the Erhaz clothes
factory have been fired by the employers because they demanded to
get paid.
Most of the workers are young women aged 18-25 coming from
nearby villages to work at Erhaz in Erzincan. The workers
demanded their wages be paid for the past three months and
stopped the machines last Monday. The employers prevented them
from entering the factory after this action. The factory
produces clothes to be exported and last year 450 people were
employed. But with the lay offs, this year only 115 workers are
employed.
The workers have started a resistance in front of the
factory. They said, "Although we work for a full month, we are
shown on the papers as having worked for two weeks for the Social
Security Service. None of our social or other rights are given.
The only thing they provided were lunches but they were very
inappropriate to eat. Lately, we can not even afford the bus
fare to come to work."
The resisting workers said their friends at work are under
pressure too and the bosses have prevented the workers from
taking breaks `fearing that they may socialize with the resisting
workers. The owners have also locked all doors and windows and
will not allow any worker to leave the premisses during the day.
"We are constantly being threatened by the bosses. Even the team
leads are doing every trick in the world to break our resistance.
But, we want to work. We will struggle to the end. We want
financial and moral support from unions, democratic mass
organizations, our people and the media".
Ozgur Ulke
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TISK (CONFEDERATION OF EMPLOYERS UNIONS) ASKS WORKERS
UNIONS TO BE SOFT
Kubilay Atasayar, the General Secretary of TISK (The
Confederation of Employers Unions) said the real issue between
workers and the employers was to decide whether the firms were
going to live or not. He said he had observed that the workers
unions had been very understanding up to now, and he requested
the continuation of this softness.
Ozgur Ulke
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PUBLIC WORKERS GIVE BACK THEIR 'INCREASE' TO PRIME MINISTER
CILLER
Public workers of the state protested the unbelievable
little raise of 217,0L ($7.00) the state has finally decided to
reward them with. The workers started an action the other day by
mailing back their inreases to P Minister, Cille. In their
declarations they announed that they would continue their
actions and struggle to get demands met. The governments
policies were criticized including the collaboration of the
government with the IMF.
POLICE ARRESTS A 5 MONTH OLD BABY
Political police arrested Adil Vurgun, his wife Dunya Vurgun
and their 5 month old baby after raiding their house at 11:00 PM
in Mardin.
Ozgur Ulke
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STATE FORCES A PROTEST MARCH IN SIRNAK
State security forces going from door to door gathered
people and forced them to march in protest of PKK, the Kurdistan
Workers Party.
The march was ordered by the governor of Sirnak, Kamil Acu.
Similar marches were conducted by the state in neighboring
Silopi, Cizre and Beytussebap towns recently. The forces
threatened the people by saying they will repeat what happened in
1992 if they did not march and chant slogans against the PKK. In
1992 the army had opened artillery fire against the town of
Sirnak and had killed many people and destroyed sections of the
town.
Ozgur Ulke
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WORKERS FORCED TO TAKE VACATION AT TOFAS AUTOMOBILE
The TOFAS automobile factory forced the workers to take
vacations at half pay while the factory undergoes an annual
service for two weeks. 4,000 workers are affected by the forced
'vacation'.
Sabri Ozdemir, the general secretary of Turk Metal Sendikasi
(Turkish Metal Workers Union) has said that the workers have
given compromises in these hard economic times, but if the
workers do not get full payments they will start a court suit
against the automobile factory.
Ozgur Ulke
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INCREDIBLE WITNESS TO MASSACRE
A witness tells story of how guerrillas were tortured,
mutilated and killed by the Turkish Army. "I was going to see my
family in Batman when I met 5 guerrillas. Their commander Yilmaz
told me not to go because there was heavy military operations on
Cudi Mountain. A taxi came and they changed their clothes and
put their arms in the luggage of the taxi. We started out
on the evening of July 21. We were stopped in front of Hacilar
Battalion.... "We were tortured for 4 days in the battalion.
Then they put me, the guerrillas, Yilmaz Uzun, Gabar, Gabar,
Selim, Behdinan and Ilhan who had been arrested in Silopi into a
Panzer tank. The team cut and mutilated the guerrillas just like
butchers while reciting the names of the killed soldiers. First
they cut off Yilmaz Uzun's ears, nose, his arms then finally his
throat like a sheep. "They also cut the others ears and other
parts. They cut off my left ear. (The picture shows A.T with the
scar left on his head where his left ear was) We were taken to
an empty field. There was an unbelievable bad smell, this was
the execution cemetery. They took off the chains from our hands
and feet. It was ordered to dump Yilmaz's corpse in a ditch dug
like a grave. They threw use by one into ditches an machine
gunned us. I played dead and survived that way..."
Ozgur lke
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