The workers at Gates Hortum ve Sanayi Tic. Ltd. Şti. joined our union and constituted the majority of membership. The certification was submitted to our union by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services on 6 December 2019. The workers became members of our union Lastik-İş exercising their right to unionize. However, the employer prevented workers from exercising their union rights, extended the process by objecting to the Ministry’s certification and tried to gain time to intimidate workers and discourage union membership. As a matter of fact, during this period Gates employer unfairly dismissed some workers, forced many workers to leave their jobs by changing their jobs and pressured workers to resign from the union.
Yusuf Ziya Sarı, İzmir Branch Chair visiting Gates factory to show our union struggle, called on Gates employer, who made an unfair objection and prolonged the process despite Ministry’s certification, to respect all workers’ constitutional rights, stating that the problems can be solved at the negotiating table.
As Lastik-İş Union, grown in the struggle for democracy and one of the cornerstones of the trade union movement in Turkey, we will resolutely fight to the end for our members to exercise their rights and freedoms.
