Kale Conveyor workers, demanding the taking of worker health and safety measures and an end to the ongoing pressure in response to unionization, underwent an attack by boss Faruk Dağlı, his son Ferhat Dağlı and plant managers.
Kale Conveyor workers and their spouses and children who have been resisting in İstanbul Silivri since 6 March, demanding the taking of worker health and safety measures and an end to the ongoing pressure in response to unionization, underwent an attack by boss Faruk Dağlı, his son Ferhat Dağlı and plant managers. A worker’s seven-month-old baby was also beaten in the attack. For their part, plain clothes police officers, from whom assistance was sought by a worker’s wife, brusquely dragged away the workers and their wives, but took no action against the boss who was continuing to hand out blows at that time. Obtaining hospital reports substantiating the beating, the workers have complained against the boss.
Wives of the workers in resistance who were attending a fast-breaking meal that Kale Conveyor gave to its workers at the Garden Restaurant in Silivri requested a meeting with boss Faruk Dağlı. In response, the boss accepted the proposal and said, “Get your husbands after the meal and come.” After the meal, five workers along with their wives came together with the boss in a room of the restaurant.
Let us hear how the incident continued from one of the assaulted workers, Ceyhun Gökşen:
“We definitely had no ulterior motive. We went to find a solution. We waited across the road with the five plain clothes police officers beside us. Then we went to the meat restaurant accompanied by the plain clothes policemen. We were brought up to a room. There were boss Faruk Dağlı, his son Ferhat Dağlı, the Production Manager, one of the plant supervisors İsmail and five women, five men and our children from among us. As we were speaking, the other side kept adopting a mocking tone. We said nothing in spite of this. Then the boss and his son started shouting at my wife, ‘If only you hadn’t come out. Did you ask me? You’re all traitors.’ And I said, ‘There’s a lady opposite you. There’s no need to raise your voices so much. We have sat down and are speaking.’ At this, the boss threw the water glass in his hand at me and, shouting, ‘Who are you, scumbag, to be talking like this?’ started to engage in unspeakable swearing and harsh verbal abuse.’
Saying that they were then beaten up, Gökşen continued as follows:
“They tried to lock the door. At that point the boss was letting loose with threats, ‘I’ll spend all my wealth and destroy you. I won’t give you house room here.’ There were plain clothes policemen downstairs but unfortunately not one of them came up. My wife fell while careering down the stairs like mad. The police came when she shouted, ‘Help!’ The police kept the boss, his son and plant managers in the room and brusquely dragged us out. They told us, ‘Go to the police station if you have a complaint.’ And we went to the hospital by our own means and got a report substantiating the beating. There are signs of beating on my left shoulder and left rear calf. This is even where they hit, I mean. There are signs of beating on three of our wives. We then went to the police station and complained, making our statements.”
Stating that he not used bad language in any way during the discussions, Gökşen said, “I have a workplace injury anyway. I told him that, too. They had given certain assistance to me and I told them that, too. I thanked him. But I explained that, unfortunately, they were not at our sides in this process. I kept on being interrupted. The words, “You’ll cry your eyes out and come begging to me’ were uttered. I’ll keep pursuing this case until the end. We have always taken a compromising attitude. But this most recent incident is the last straw. I mean, never mind us, what’s with this violence towards women? Never mind this, what’s with this violence towards a seven-month-old baby? Criminal complaints have in fact been made to the necessary places. We’ll stay on top of this business. We won’t step back. Our minds are made up.”
Sezai Tekkan, who was beaten up together with his seven-month-old baby, said, “Our aim was actually clear. We went for an immediate resolution to the process. But their aim was different. First they took us into a cameraless room and then beat us up. It was premeditated. The boss’s son punched me in the face. The police came and apprehended us rather than apprehending the actual guilty parties and they beat us, too. They didn’t even arrest them. They told us, ‘Go to the police station if you have a complaint.’ There are fingerprints on my seven-month-old baby’s back. Everyone has reports substantiating the beating. Whey would I go there with my seven-month-old baby to start a fight? I mean, forget me, you raised your hand against my seven-month-old baby.”
Beating victim Banu Gökşen said, “They didn’t let me speak. When Mr Dağlı’s son raised his voice, my husband couldn’t help himself and intervened. At this, Mr Dağlı insulted my husband. He called us traitors. Then we were beaten up. There were plain clothes policemen downstairs. When I shouted, ‘They’re beating up my husband’ they didn’t come upstairs and didn’t intervene at all. They laid my husband on the ground, three to five people overwhelmed him and beat him. Why did we go there and what did we let ourselves in for? Mr Dağlı, who had said they would hold a meeting if no trouble emerged, didn’t stand by what he said. They felt no shame while doing this to us. I mean, if you’ve got money in these times everyone defends you but if you’ve got no money we’re always the ones that get crushed. Even though I fell and felt faint there nobody picked me up. We have a complaint about everyone there, including the Garden Meat Restaurant staff and proprietors.”
Union of Petroleum Workers Thrace Branch Ercan Yavuz had the following to say in reaction to what happened:
“We have been taking action for nearly eighty days. We have been unable to obtain support from either the state or government or politicians or the press – I have no issue with you and a few press outlets. A capitalist’s spoiled child attacks our colleagues who are engaged in labour struggle here and their spouses and children. While the boss should have prevented this, he beats our colleagues along with those at his side. This is unacceptable. What gives him this courage? If everyone I’ve just reeled off from civil service administrators to the government is on the boss’s side this man will let it go to his head. He sees himself as being the owner of the state and sees himself entitled to beat everyone up. How can they act so oafishly next to our wives and children? If we had acted in the same way towards boss F.D. who knows what would have happened to us. But these incidents will not go unanswered for. These matters are not so simple. We will seek our rights within the law.”
The struggle of the Kale Conveyor workers, who have been resisting in İstanbul’s Silivri sub-province since 6 March against poor working conditions, low pay, the inadequacy of workers’ health and work safety measures and increasing pressure in response to unionization, is in its 77th day.
The attack was protested by Union of Petroleum Workers member workers and their families.
Congregating in Atatürk Statue Square in Silivri, Union of Petroleum Workers Headquarters Administrator Turgut Düşova and representatives of the Labour Party, Freedom and Solidarity Party, Republican People’s Party, Peoples’ Democratic Party, Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions-affiliated Food Workers Union, General Workers Union and Educational Workers Union, Education and Science Workers' Union, Turkish Medical Association and Association for the Support of Contemporary Living gave support to the workers and their families. Rebuking those political parties that were not at the workers’ side, Yavuz said, “Especially members of parliament should give their backing.”
Yavuz also voiced his discontent at press outlets that gave no coverage to the Kale Conveyor workers.
(Translated by Tim Drayton)
Yusuf Karadaş
Yücel Özdemir
