Euroserve workers demand trade union rights

Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu and DİSK/Gıda-İş Chair Seyit Aslan met with the workers at the Torbalı Municipality Meeting Hall as part of the union organisation activities of Euroserve workers subcontracted to Philip Morris.

DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu supported the workers' struggle in the Euroserve company and said, "A collective labour agreement will be signed in this factory, and DİSK will stand by this struggle with all its strength."

The meeting held at Torbalı Municipality Cultural Centre Hall was attended by DİSK Chair Arzu Çerkezoğlu, DİSK Central Executive Board Member and Chair of Gıda-İş Trade Union Seyit Aslan, Aegean Regional Representative of Gıda-İş Trade Union Ufuktan Öden, and executives and representatives of trade unions affiliated to DİSK and Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions (KESK).

Arzu Çerkezoğlu said, "This system has nothing left to promise to the working class, labourers, women and youth. It promises us nothing but hunger, poverty, work murders, hostility to labour and war. We are now talking about a new social order. We are talking about a social order based on equality and justice, where justice in income and taxation is ensured and we can live humanely. We will build the Turkey of labour with our unity and solidarity. The struggle you are waging today in the Marlboro factory is what will build the Turkey of labour. It is the contracts we have signed all over the country. The determination you have shown today at Euroserve and Philip Morris is not only a matter of Torbalı, not only a matter of your family, but a matter and a struggle for Turkey and the future."

 Seyit Aslan, Chair of Gıda-İş Union, in which the workers are organised, stated that their main demand was freedom to unionise and said: "We want equal pay for equal work. We do not want subcontractor discrimination in the factory, we want staff. We want our dismissed workers to be reinstated. We want to sit at the table with the union as soon as possible and start negotiations on the collective labour agreement. We want the pressure on our fellow workers to end. We have no chance to go back this way. The more organised we are, the sooner we will get our rights. They should come to their senses as soon as possible and start a dialogue with us in line with the demands of our fellow workers. We want a working order in that workplace with our rights, equal pay for equal work, and social rights. Therefore, we must continue on our way by further strengthening our unity and solidarity. I believe that this just cause of ours will result in victory."

WHAT HAS HAPPENED?

The DİSK-affiliated Gıda-İş Union, which had been carrying out organising work at the Philip Morris (Marlboro) factory for two years, completed its organising work in a short period of two weeks when 70% of the workers working at EUROSERVE Hizmet ve İşletmecilik A.Ş., a subcontractor in the same factory, became members of the union.  Following this, Disk Gıda-İş Headquarters sent a meeting request to both Philips Morris Headquarters and Euroserve Hizmet ve İşletmecilik A.Ş. Headquarters on 25 August 2022, but there was no positive or negative response from the headquarters of both companies.

A Euroserve worker who attended the meeting said: "We work in the same factory and do the same jobs as our brothers and sisters working in Philip Morris company. In fact, since we are subcontracted workers, we do heavy work in many departments that Philip Morris workers do not do. Despite this, we receive an average of one third of the salary of Philip Morris workers. They have promotion rights, they receive extra payments, they are taken on holiday in luxury hotels, but we have no social rights. We cannot make a living. We have no peace at work."

Another Euroserve worker said, "We are forced to work overtime here without any holidays. I have friends who have worked 270 hours of overtime per year in just 3-4 months. In every department, they do things according to their own minds. There is no order in the workplace."

Another worker who was dismissed for this reason in the early days of unionisation efforts said, "Let me tell you something interesting. Since my house is not on the shuttle route, I used to go to work by public transport or my private car. 3 years ago I requested a travel allowance. That day I started to receive a monthly travel allowance of 150 TL. Until the day I was dismissed, my travelling allowance never changed despite the high inflation rate and the recent 300% increase in almost everything. They continued to give 150 liras per month."

Ufuktan Öden, Aegean Regional Representative of the Gıda-İş Union, who we asked about the status of unionisation efforts, explained the process to us as follows:

"Our union organisation activities, which we carried out among the permanent workers of Philip Morris Company in this factory two years ago, took another dimension in early August when the workers of Euroserve Hizmet ve İşletmecilik A.Ş., which also serves in the same factory, started to organise in our union. In a very short time, the majority of Euroserve workers became members of our union. The employer's first response to these efforts was to exile four of our member workers to other workplaces. Our fellow workers who refused to accept this exile were dismissed. In all departments, the pressure on our fellow workers by supervisors and managers intensified. They were told by their supervisors and managers: "You cannot join the union despite the administration. If you don't want to lose your job, resign from the union immediately". Arbitrary overtime practices increased. Almost by saying 'you have an eyebrow over your eye', minutes were kept against our fellow workers for absurd reasons and defences were started to be requested. Upon this, we first elected our representatives in all departments by taking joint decisions with our fellow workers in almost every process. We organised an action in the factory for half an hour against the oppression. Afterwards, when there was no response to our call for a meeting at both company headquarters. As a union, we organised a press statement in front of the factory, supported by our fellow workers from inside. Today, we organised a big workers' meeting here with the participation of our confederation president and the General President of our Gıda-İş Union. Our demands are very clear. They are economic, democratic and legitimate humanitarian demands. We demand equal pay for equal work, a raise in salaries to a level that can be lived humanely, the reinstatement of our fellow workers who were dismissed on the grounds of unionisation, and a positive response to our call for collective bargaining with employers according to national, international and ILO norms. And we are determined to continue our legal, democratic and legitimate struggle to the end until we obtain these rights." (EVRENSEL DAILY)