Cargill workers continue to demand reemployment after Covid-19 break

Photo: Serpil Ünal/İSİG

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Workers who were dismissed from their jobs at the Cargill company after unionizing have resumed the protest which they started in front of the factory two-and-a-half years ago.

On August 20, 2019, they moved their protest to in front of the Palladium Tower in Ataşehir, where the company's headquarters is located.

CLICK - Cargill Workers' Resistance on 500th Day: 'When We Win, the Working Class will Win" 

The protest was later interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

While the company fired 14 workers on the ground of "excess quota" and downsizing, it has constantly increased its production capacity and investments, the workers said in a written statement today (August 17).

Founded in 1999, the company has been producing starch-based sugar and animal feed.

Some of the workers were fired after becoming a member of the Tek-Gıda İş union. They have won the reemployment lawsuit but the company refuses to rehire workers and offers compensation instead.

Workers demand the implementation of the court verdict and returning to work.

Today, the they made a statement in front of the Fasdat Food, a Cargill company that is one of the largest suppliers of Burger King, in İstanbul's Beşiktaş district.

"The only thing that matters to you: preventing union organization! Because if the union comes, you have to work honestly, you have to be fair, you have to release the welfare share of the workers that you have been exploiting their labor for years. If the union comes, you have to manage like a human!

"You never want a worker who defends their rights and freedoms! That's why you committed a crime by firing 14 of our friends," the workers said, adding that they have been continuing their "honorable struggle" for 846 days despite obstacles by the company.

"Since we are granted these rights and freedoms, we will enjoy them to the fullest extent. We will make every effort not to make this right violated. Cargill, an American company that is enriched with the labor of our fired friends and contributions of you, our dear customers, and that is constantly growing, must now stop being hostile to unions and immediately take back our dismissed friends," said the workers.

Court: They were dismissed because of union activity

Tekgıda-İş union's organization head Suat Karlıkaya had told bianet about how they decided to start a resistance:

"The workers would either go and work in another factory, and when they sought their rights there they would be dismissed again, or they would resist here and fight where they were wronged. We decided on a joint fight."

Noting that the case they filed resulted in their favor, Karlıkaya said, "We have only one demand, to start work."

"The expert witness, who submitted an opinion to the court, wrote a report that the workers had been dismissed due to trade union activities, not because of the 'quotas' as the employer claimed. And the court followed that report, ruling that we are right. "The court ruled for the workers' return to work and for union compensation. Workers earned compensation starting from 4 net 12 brutes. But our request is to be reinstated.

"The employer has appealed the decision. We will continue our struggle. When this resistance is won, not just 14 workers, but the working class will win. We expect solidarity."

(AS/VK)