Coronavirus: Bosses’ Club in Turkey as Elsewhere

The Turkish capitalist class continues to make the working class pay the heavy bill of both the economic crisis and the pandemic. The established rights of workers are destroyed by new laws and actual practices. The working and living conditions of workers are getting worse and poverty is growing.

In the first weeks of the pandemic, the government immediately banned layoffs to pretend that workers are not being victimized. And also they wanted to prevent unemployment statistics from looking bad. But, with many provisions for exceptions, this was not really a ban that prevented unemployment. According to Article 25/II of the labour law, workers can be fired in cases such as violating workplace discipline, absenteeism, taking long-term leave, exhibiting behaviours that do not follow the rules of morality and goodwill. Thus, bosses have been provided a valid condition to dismiss workers by notifying with Code 29 of the law to SSI (Social Security Institution). As a matter of fact, abusing the exceptional Code 29, the bosses have started to dismiss workers who took action to improve terrible working conditions and organize in trade unions. And there are other evil implications of the use of Code 29 such as exempting those workers from receiving compensation and blackening his personal work history which is a major negative element with their future possibilities to find new jobs.

There are almost 10 million unemployed in Turkey. Inflation rate reaches 30%. With the “full lockdown” that started on April 29, the number of unemployed and bankrupt small-scale enterprises increased more. The working class met May Day 2021 under these conditions. May Day could not be celebrated in the squares due to the bans. The working masses were prevented from expressing their problems and demands.

According to the current labour law, workers cannot be fired on the grounds that they get unionized. If they are fired, the bosses must pay them compensation. This law has remained on paper in many cases. Workers who were dismissed due to unionization have been victimized by the obligation of proving the true reason of firing and prolonged court processes. In this process, bosses are firing and punishing workers using Code 29 without paying compensation. In practice they are denying the right to unionize. When workers want to stand against it, pandemic bans are put forward against them. The ruling party AKP holds party congresses and all kinds of meetings, but when it comes to workers, they prohibit actions and assert pandemic bans. This situation strengthens the hands of the bosses. In the face of the reaction of trade unions and workers, what the government did was only to divide Code 29 into sub-headings and re-introduce it under new names.

On the other hand, the government has given bosses the right to send workers to unpaid leave. Two million workers were put on unpaid leave only in a year. Actually, this meant dismissal but such a method was used so that the official unemployment rate would not increase. These workers received extremely low benefits from the unemployment fund. In reality unemployed workers were not included in unemployment statistics. They have been forced into hunger. Many workers who led the struggle to unionize were punished with unpaid leave. Thus, in addition to Code 29, unpaid leaves have been used as a way to destroy the right to unionize.

In many cities and towns workers’ struggles to unionize and resist the punishment method applied through the Code 29 (renamed as Code 42-50) and unpaid leave continue. Metal workers struggle for the right to unionize in Çorum and Kocaeli. In Gebze, Çayırova, unionized workers of Baldur Suspension factory have been on strike since December 25. In Çorum, 90 workers of Ekmekçioğlu factory were fired on Code 29 because they unionized. Their struggle is going on as well. Workers who are on unpaid leave because of getting unionized at the Systemair HSK factory in Dilovası, Kocaeli, have been on a wildcat strike with picketing in front of the factory since 19 October. Food workers of Döhler factory in Karaman and Adkotürk factory in Çerkezköy keep on their actions to make bosses recognize the right to unionize. In French-owned Belkarper factory, workers on unpaid leave struggled and won. They returned to work. However, workers do not give up the struggle for making the boss recognize the right to unionize. The pressure on the struggle of Migros Depo workers, organized in the warehouse of Migros Markets, continues. Workers are confronted with police pressure. Workers were banned from entering the street where the boss’ house was. With the lockdowns, workers are prohibited from being in the areas of strike and picket. Workers who defy the ban are intimidated with fines. On the other side, in Rize, local people face police and gendarmerie violence as they put up a fight against the attempt by Cengiz Holding, close to the government, to open a quarry in İkizdere, Rize, which will do great harm to nature.

There are almost 10 million unemployed in Turkey. Inflation rate reaches 30%. With the “full lockdown” that started on April 29, the number of unemployed and bankrupt small-scale enterprises increased more. The working class met May Day 2021 under these conditions. May Day could not be celebrated in the squares due to the bans. The working masses were prevented from expressing their problems and demands.

But despite all prohibitions, workers stood for May Day and held action in many cities such as Diyarbakır, İzmir, Adana, Kocaeli and Istanbul. Workers in hundreds of factories voiced their demands. They demanded a genuine ban on lay-offs, recognition of the right to unionise, higher wages and effective measures against the pandemic.