WORKERS OF SF TRADE AND KALE PRATT&WHITNEY ARE NOT ALONE!


WORKERS OF SF TRADE AND KALE PRATT&WHITNEY ARE NOT ALONE!

Four woman workers of the SF Trade Textile Plant have been picketing at the entrance of the Gaziemir Free Zone for 143 days for being involved in union activities.

The unionization of workers in the Kale Pratt&Whitney Aero Engine Industries, a joint venture between the Turkish Kale Group and the American Pratt&Whitney primarily for making engine parts for the F-35 fighter, spurred the capitalist bosses to action.

When workers in the Kale Pratt&Whitney Aero Engine Plant joined the All Metal Workers Union, the employer terminated 94 workers.

The plant management had effectively reduced wages to minimum wage with low raises, and had started to engage in mobbing against workers after the S-400 crisis with the US. As a result, the workers began to organize under the All Metal Workers Union, a member of DİSK. When the workers exercised their constitutional right and joined the union, the first move was to terminate 7 workers one night, for no reason. The terminated workers staged a demonstration in front of the plant. The workers who expressed support for their fired colleagues were terminated themselves within a few days. Soon, 94 workers had been fired. Then, the plant manager called the workers to a meeting and offered to re-hire them on the condition that they resign from the union. When the workers refused, they responded with threats and insults. The workers started a sit-in on February 29 at the entrance of the Aegean Free Zone to fight for their right to unionize.

The workers fight against the usurping of their legal and legitimate right to unionize, while the employer terminates workers for various reasons. It all boils down to a smear campaign using cherry-picked articles of the labor law, designed to make the employer look righteous on a legal basis. This is not new to the capital: it is a tested method used to break unionization. To prevent unionization among workers, they will identify union members and fire them using various excuses. This plays out once again in the SF Trade and Kale Pratt&Whitney Aero Engine plants.

The bosses of Kale Pratt&Whitney Aero Engine plant fire unionized workers on the one hand, while hiring new and non-union workers on the other to prevent the union from gaining majority. The forces of labor and democracy are obligated to defend the acquired rights of the working class against unlawfulness and injustice, and to rise in solidarity with the working class.

The workers and laborers will expose capitalist bosses for the frauds they are. Today, SF Trade Textile workers are at resistance at the entrance of the Gaziemir Free Zone, and Aero Engine workers are at resistance at the Izmir Fair Gate of the Free Zone. The working class and all people in support of labor stand with the textile and aero engine workers; they support them in solidarity, helping them feel that they are not alone. The justice of time will favor the workers. Workers who resist will finally and rightfully prevail. We stand with workers who recognize the power of organized struggle, who defy the capital and take a step for unionization.

Workers who resist and fight are not alone. The workers, laborers, friends of labor, and the makers of all value stand with them. 11.03.2020

Glory to the working class!
Glory to the workers’ resistance!

İmece Friendship Solidarity Association

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