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Metal worker’s march on Ankara blocked by police

The police blocked a march United Metalworkers' Union-member workers wished to stage on Ankara. Those assembling in front of the trade union building were arrested. The arrestees were released in the evening.

United Metalworkers' Union (Birleşik Metal İş)-member workers were forcefully prevented by the police from marching from Gebze to Ankara demanding recognition of union rights. A total of 97 people were arrested in front of the union’s Gebze No 1 branch, including workers, union administrators and members of other unions and political parties who had come in support. The arrestees were released in the evening.

The announcement, stating that the Provincial Governate, having banned the march on the pretext of the pandemic, had turned a blind eye to the blockade of the union building by police forces in contravention of pandemic rules and the harsh police intervention, included the following words: “The public of the entire country was witness to the police violence that took place in Gebze today. We will bring the law to bear on the attack launched on metal workers at Kocaeli Governate’s behest and will unhaltingly seek remedy for this unlawfulness. We will continue with all our resolve to air the struggle and demands our members at SystemAir HSK, Özer Elektrik and Baldur Süspansiyon have been pursuing for months against enforced unpaid leave. We will not allow metalworkers’ voices to be muffled.”

Stressing that the march planned on the International Labour Organization and Ministry of Labour and Social Services in Ankara will take place with the participation of twenty workers from the resisting plants on Wednesday 25 November, the announcement states, “We invite all our friends to the front of our Gebze branch tomorrow at 10 o’clock to see off the metal workers who will set out on the march to Ankara.”

ARRESTEES BY THE BUSLOAD WITH THE PANDEMIC AS PRETEXT

Providing Evrensel with information, one of the arrestees, Labour Party Kocaeli Provincial Chair Arzu Erkan said that three buses were filled with people the police had arrested and they were taken to Gebze Sub-Provincial Directorate of Police.

The march on Ankara to be launched by workers from the Systemair HSK, Özer Elektrik and Baldur plants, who had been dismissed without compensation and placed on unpaid leave by bosses for being members of the United Metalworkers' Union, affiliated with the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions, was blocked under a Kocaeli Provincial Governate decision. The police intervened forcefully against the workers who had had rallied in front of the United Metalworkers' Union’s No 1 Branch in Gebze to initiate the march.

Assembling in front of United Metalworkers' Union’s No 1 Branch in Gebze, workers unfurled the banner, “We want trade union rights.” Large numbers of police officers were also positioned close to the area where the workers had gathered. Police officers initially cautioned workers to comply with physical distancing and then began to block and hem in the workers citing the existence of a Governate decision. In the ensuing scuffle, the police intervened forcefully with shields and truncheons against the workers.

In the scuffle that arose following the resort to force by the police, initially eight arrests were made including union administrators and workers. United Metalworkers' Union General Chair Adnan Serdaroğlu made a statement.

SERDAROĞLU: IS THIS JUSTICE? IS THIS DEMOCRACY?

Speaking after the police had forcefully blocked the workers, United Metalworkers' Union General Chair Adnan Serdaroğlu said, “We send our respect to the Kocaeli Governor from here. Esteemed Governor, whose conscience is beyond our reproach, greetings come to you from all metal workers! We send our respect to the Minister of Labour, who has uttered not a word about the injustice workers have suffered in the heart of the industrial region. We also send metal workers’ greetings to the AKP administration that, never mind justice, is trying to surrender development to foreign powers.”

Serdaroğlu declared, “A disgrace is being experienced in Turkey’s largest and most developed industrial location and those who turn a blind eye will give account. There is talk of, ‘The wheels must turn. Workers must work despite Covid. If workers are sick in a factory, they must work, sick as they are, under quarantine.’ The rate at which workers are contracting Covid is far higher than that of society at large. These workers are condemned to low pay, are placed on unpaid leave or are dismissed for exercising their constitutional right and joining a union. Oh, Minister of Labour, you who are obliged to implement these laws! Workers are being pressurized in all ways just for being union members. Is this justice? Is this democracy? Are these human rights? Are these freedoms?”

With workers staging a sit-down action in front of the union building, three buses belonging to Gebze Municipality bearing the inscription “Bright future” were brought into the area. The police then forcefully arrested the workers and everyone who was in the area, and the buses were filled. A total of 99 people were arrested and taken to Gebze Sub-Provincial Directorate of Police.

LABOUR PARTY GENERAL CHAIR AKDENİZ: OPEN THE ROAD TO THE METAL WORKERS AND RELEASE THE ARRESTEES

Commenting on the arrest of metal workers seeking recognition of their trade union rights, Labour Party General Chair Ercüment Akdeniz, stating that Kocaeli Governate had imposed a ban on all actions and events in the entire city to block the workers, said, “Today an attack was staged on metal workers, union administrators and supporters attending in solidarity who had gathered for the march, and hundreds of arrests were made. Ninety people (the number later reached 97), including union General Chair Adnan Serdaroğlu, union administrators and our party’s Kocaeli Provincial Chair Arzu Erkan, are under arrest. The state, silent about metal bosses that dismiss workers who exercise their constitutional rights, has displayed its power to workers who were taking action for their legitimate demands.”

Akdeniz stressed that the Özer Elektrik, Systemair HSK and Baldur bosses had committed a crime in not recognizing the trade union and remarked, “Public administrators, not least the provincial governate and police, are party to this crime. We condemn this attack made on metal workers, trade union administers and their supporters. The arrestees must be released and the road opened to metal workers. Metal workers cannot be halted through applying violence. Above all else, the intervention against union rights and freedoms must be ended, the trade union recognized and the dismissees given their jobs back without loss of rights, while an investigation needs to be launched into the bosses who have committed a constitutional crime.”

Administrators from Oil Workers’, Education and Science Workers' and Independent Mine Workers’ Unions plus the Gebze Association of those Falling Short of the Retirement Age and the Republican People’s Party, Socialist Refoundation Party and Revolutionary Workers' Party also came to the venue to support the workers.

PROTESTS BY WORKERS AT PLANTS WHERE THE UNITED METALWORKERS' UNION IS ORGANIZED

Workers at plants in Gebze where the United Metalworkers' Union is organized staged protests against the blocking and arrest of their colleagues who had wished to march on Ankara.

Making press statements at their plants before starting their shifts, the workers stressed that Kocaeli Governate’s banning order and the police demeanour were unacceptable, said, “What has to be prevented is not workers who have been deprived of their rights, prevented from becoming unionized and punished with unpaid leave, but the employers who at every opportunity breach the law, statute, the most fundamental human rights and labour rights and freedoms. The arrested unionists and our members must be released at once and account taken of workers’ demands not bosses’ impositions.” (EVRENSEL DAILY)


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