The closed workplace was reopened with the efforts of our union, and all workers returned to work unconditionally, without returning their severance and notice payments.
- Our union has become a legally authorized union in Hayri Uğur Tekstil after the employer’s objection.
- In this workplace, negotiations continue within the framework of mutual respect within the framework of the agreement reached by the parties.
- A group of workers, who call themselves committees (which has now also formed a union), is in an effort to manage the workers with pressure and intimidation.
- They force the workers to file lawsuits and see the lawsuits as a means of rent. Those who falsely slandered the union for the stamp money did not feel ashamed to initiate execution proceedings worth thousands of liras to the workers who had withdrawn from the case.
Hayri Uğur Tekstil is a new workplace opened in 2019 to operate in the field of ready-made clothing production in Urfa. Although it had a large production capacity, it was a workplace that could not reach the desired level, had management problems and naturally, some problems for the workers came to the fore. Workers in this workplace became members of our union since the beginning of August 2021 and at the end of the month, the number of members became sufficient for collective bargaining.
Problems started to emerge from the date when the Ministry of Labor and Social Security sent the document stating that our union had a sufficient majority for the contract in Hayri Uğur Tekstil (formerly Uğur Tekstil).
The workplace was closed and the employment contracts of all employees, including the managers, were terminated, and their due notice and severance pay were paid. A lawsuit was filed against the majority of our union.
Upon this development, our union tried to find a solution to the problem by contacting the brand that the workplace works with.
The initiatives made yielded positive results in a short time and negotiations with the employer were initiated. Until this stage, the only issue that the workers told us was the opening of the workplace and reemployment.
Focusing on this issue, our union has reached an agreement with the employer on the following issues as a result of long negotiations with Inditex’s union expert, Güçlü Lordoğlu;
- Re-opening the workplace with a new management, taking back all the dismissed workers, leaving the paid notice and severance pay to the workers,
- Commencement of collective bargaining negotiations and implementation of the agreement by withdrawing the authorization objection.
These decisions began to be implemented quickly. The workplace was opened, all the workers returned to their jobs. Preparations for the collective agreement have begun. The employer withdrew its authorization objection as of the end of December 2021.
However, since the return of the workers to their jobs, those who said that “our priority is opening the workplace, reemployment, and there are not very high expectations regarding collective bargaining” have left. It was replaced by a discourse that did not recognize the union administration and tried to substitute themselves for the union by declaring themselves as “workers’ representatives” by our former regional representative and a group gathered around him.
Like every self-respecting person and institution, our union did not want to work with a person who had such an approach and parted ways with him. The incident suddenly turned into this person’s private political advertising campaign. He continued this campaign by opening social media accounts containing workers and constantly distorting the facts, using a newspaper as a tool through his personal connection.
Unfortunately, those who constantly complain about trolls and the contamination of social media in their daily lives helped to spread this distorted, centrally produced, fake news without question.
However, if they carefully read the pictures and the written texts, they could easily see the press releases in which the same people (including a few workers) appear, the texts written in the same pattern, the storms ripped from the texts pulled with tweezers and torn from their essence and content. They didn’t, because some people who were hurt by the social media trolls didn’t realize they were volunteering for this person’s troll campaign.
Even there are people who can easily contact the union and ask for truth about these events among them, they did not do it and instead they sided with ones blaming with prejudice
Here are our answers to those lot talked lies:
1) Uğur Tekstil workers who were dismissed for union reasons: There is a claim used as a template in almost every news article of a newspaper; Uğur Tekstil workers who were dismissed for union reasons. The workplace has reopened, all workers have started their work. As of September 2021, there are no workers dismissed for union reasons at this workplace.
2) Union representative dismissed for defending workers’ rights: Turkish author Aziz Nesin’s book “The Great Strike” tells a story about workers who have been harmed because of a strike pushed by union with political reasons. Just like how it happened in Hayri Uğur Tekstil. Although workers could go back to job thanks to attempts of our union, the people who claim themselves as workers’ representatives caused workers to become unemployed by forcing for strikes.
The reason for this person’s dismissal has been explained above. Since its establishment, our union has been sensitive to people who do not recognize the will of their elected committees, who perceive class unionism as doing whatever they want, and ignore discipline. Regardless of the cost, it resolutely uses the powers given by our Charter. For this, there is no obligation to account to anyone other than the General Assembly.
3) The union asked for money to send the workers’ information: Those who are a little familiar with union life know that every day, court letters covering hundreds of workers are received by the unions from dozens of courts. Postage costs were paid by the parties to the court. The court in Urfa has neglected its duty in this regard. This is an issue that lawyers in Urfa are aware of and complain about. For this reason, it was aimed to evaluate the issue with the worker’s lawyer and the judge to see this situation. At the same time, we talked with the lawyer, the articles he wanted were sent to him by e-mail, and the articles of many people were also sent to the court by mail. Moreover, the court requests information not only from the union, but also from the Ministry where the original records are located. In other words, no lawsuit is left unsuccessful because the union did not send a letter. To say that the union asked for money is a dishonest falsification.
Just while this subject is being discussed, it has been revealed who really wants money from whom. Trade union compensation lawsuits were filed against the employer with the power of attorney taken from the workers on the grounds that they will use them as leverage against the employer if necessary. These lawsuits have been brought to a significant part of these workers without even being informed. Execution proceedings have now been initiated by this lawyer or lawyers for the workers who have withdrawn from the case. Those who accuse our union of stamp money demand thousands of liras from the workers through execution.
4) Union managers do not answer our phones: Since the beginning of the process, interviews were held with everyone who called. Relationships with those who acted hypocritically and tried to discuss issues that had nothing to do with them were cut off. The union is an organization, the member here is obliged to act in accordance with the union statute. There is nothing to talk about with people cursing the union with a press release that was handed to them on the same day, calling and saying, “Help us”.
5) The union does nothing to get us back to work: The union has ensured that all workers return to their jobs. The union is not responsible for those who believe someone’s word and create problems, and those who follow someone without even realizing what is happening, become unemployed again. Despite this, efforts were made to return every member of our union who reached our union to work. Events in the workplace and large-scale mistakes in production have limited the movement area of our union. Nevertheless, this issue was persistently kept on the agenda and more than 20 workers were allowed to return to work or leave without agreement. Beyond that, it is entirely the employer’s own management responsibility. It is also claimed that our union did not help Özak workers by same person or persons. Another union is organized in Özak. Collective agreement is in effect. All necessary initiatives have been made for all our members here through the brand channel. However, the protocol between the unions clearly considers intervention in a workplace with a collective agreement a violation of common law.
6) Union manager is employer witness: This is an issue where they cover a document and put insults on it recently. It is the list of witnesses regarding the case regarding the dismissal of people who deliberately caused an incident at the information meeting of our Vice President at the workplace, attempted to attack our manager, and left the workplace en masse after the intervention of the employer. It is natural for everyone present at the crime scene to share what they see and know, and it is their civic duty. It is not important who the witness is, but what he says. Everyone’s common concern should be for the truth to come out and for the court to decide accordingly.
Attacks were made with many such lies and distorted events, and they continue to be done. It is thought-provoking that those who claim that they are making an effort for the rights of the working class and for their union organization are also part of this. Such approaches support the rooting of anti-union perceptions created by employers, in short, the condemnation of workers to disorganization.
At Hayri Uğur Tekstil, the process proceeds step by step, in accordance with the rules. We hope that everyone who has been laid off recently and whose real desire is to work at the workplace will be able to return to their jobs.
Our union continues and matures collective bargaining negotiations with the employer. The only problem is that the petition to withdraw from the lawsuit filed by the employer is decided by the court. This issue, which looks simple from the outside, is a time-consuming process in operation. One way or another, the only thing that is certain is that with the withdrawal of the objection, our union has become the authorized union in the workplace.
This is an important and sensitive achievement that needs to be protected, not only for our union, but also for the workers of Urfa. Because in Urfa, the number of authorized workplaces within the scope of collective agreement in our line of business is at most three.
Someone may try to destroy this important achievement (even at the expense of closing the workplace and unemployment of the workers) in order to shine their own political career, perhaps to pretend to be the chairman of a party, to establish their own union and to rule there alone. Our duty is to keep this workplace alive, to protect the jobs workers, including our members, and to enable them to work in better conditions.
At Hayri Uğur Tekstil, we will work with all our strength to reach our goal of creating the most appropriate collective agreement, taking into account the structure of the workplace and the characteristics of the region, and putting this collective agreement into practice with the representatives of the workers themselves. Despite all the obstacles, we will succeed.