When workers arrived at the Döhler Karaman factory on 17 May 2021, they were met with a large police presence, complete with riot gear and water cannons.
The company’s employees had faced five years of attempts to deny them the right to organise at the company, which provides the food industry with technology-based ingredients. 17 May was the date on which they were due to decide on strike action against the company’s latest attempts at union-busting.
Over the previous five years, Döhler Group management in Turkey had unfairly dismissed union members; started illegally interrogating workers and pressured them to resign their union membership; forced workers to resign and be re-employed by a subcontractor in an attempt to destroy the union by shrinking the bargaining unit; and continued to refuse to collectively bargain with the workers’ formally recognised union, Tekgıda-İş.
Following a four- and half-year legal challenge by Döhler to Tekgıda-İş’ collective bargaining certification, Turkey’s highest courts confirmed Tekgıda-İş’ bargaining status and mandated collective bargaining, but local management failed to show up for negotiations.
From January 2021 management escalated its attacks on workers’ rights. It pressured union members to resign their union membership and forcibly transferred workers to a subcontracting labour company, which removed them from the bargaining unit, with the aim of undermining the union’s status as a collective bargaining agent.
An inspection by the Ministry of Labour found Döhler guilty of violating labour legislation, and the workers were given the deadline of 17 May to decide whether to strike.
Unfortunately, more than five years of intimidation and antiunion discrimination against workers at Döhler Gıda Sanayi A.Ş created such an environment of fear that workers could not go on strike. Under Turkish law, this gave Döhler the possibility to challenge Tekgıda-İş’s collective bargaining status, which the company opted to do.
Further to the 17 May events a worker and a shop steward were dismissed.
