Turquía - Anti-union campaign at IKEA and Carrefour supplier (2010)

Menderes Tekstil in South-Western Turkey, supplier of IKEA and Carrefour, produces bed linen for the home market and for export. Over the last years, four Menderes workers died due to work-related injuries. In March 2008, the national textile workers union TEKSIF (an ITGLWF affiliate) started organising workers at the factory. Since then, the Menderes management called the union leaders into their offices one by one, and gave them the choice between renouncing the union or being sacked. The management has repeatedly threatened workers suspected of being union members, forcing them to leave the union or to sign documents indicating their voluntary resignation. In some cases, workers have been assigned to new jobs for which they are not trained or qualified. Where workers have refused to renounce their union membership or to accept a transfer or dismissal, the management has occasionally gone as far as to harass their relatives if they too were employed at the factory.

Along with trade union centres and the Clean Clothes Campaign, TEKSIF demanded recognition of TEKSIF as their legitimate representative trade union, and for it to be granted collective bargaining status; for management to involve TEKSIF in the ongoing discussions on the factory’s restructuring; and the reinstatement, with compensations and pay-back of salary arrears for workers who were involved in court proceedings following their dismissal due to their union membership.

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