Source: evrensel.net
Berkay AVCI
Bursa
Nearly 200 unionized workers have been laid off since November at the Aunde Technical Textile Factory in the free zone in Gemlik, Bursa. The workers said that they had joined DİSK/Tekstil against poor working conditions, but that the factory management somehow found out about some of the union members, and that unionized workers were forced to resign, made to work in heavier jobs, and subjected to verbal harassment and insults. In Aunde Teknik Tekstil, where the hostility towards organized workers was taken to another level, a female worker was made to stand on one leg until the end of the shift because she was a member of the union, another worker who witnessed those moments said.
“WORKERS WERE BEING HARASSED AND COVERED UP”
Mehtap Tutkun, the line supervisor who was fired while working at Aunde Teknik Tekstil in Gemlik free zone, where more than 3,500 workers work, said that she was forced to resign by the managers while she was doing one of the heaviest jobs in the factory for 5 years. She said that the majority of the 3,500 workers in the factory were women, while the number of male workers was around 700, and that they were subjected to all kinds of harassment by their superiors. Saying that she could not stand the pressure, Tutkun said, “Women workers were being harassed and these incidents were always covered up and passed over. They used insults that humiliated the workers. Many of our friends quit their jobs because they were insulted. A year ago, one of our friends who worked as a foreman in the factory started to be scolded by the person in charge of the area where we worked. At first we didn’t understand what was going on, the insults increased and he started making fun of us. Somehow he found out that our friend was unionized. Insulting him, he took him to the large square of the factory where forklifts pass by and made him stand on one leg until the end of the shift.”
WORKERS FORCED TO RESIGN
Tutkun said that the workers did not have enough power to make a sound that day, but that they have been organizing harder since then, “They are trying to take the e-government password of the workers by force, and one of the workers has already given the screenshots of the WhatsApp group we set up in the factory to the management. Workers who send messages about the union to that group are persecuted. In the middle of the night, workers are taken from the factory to a mediator and forced to resign by agreement. They ask us to go to jobs we are not interested in, and when we refuse to accept these changes, they use this as an excuse to fire us. There have been workers who were fired at 2 a.m.”
When we asked about the workers’ allegations, Aunde Teknik Tekstil executives said they did not want to talk to us about this issue.
Source: evrensel.net
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