‘We Were Dismissed Due to Downsizing, They Hired Others on the Same Day’

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Four workers working in the warehouse of Şok Markets in Çayırova, Kocaeli have been dismissed on the stated grounds of "tightening" and "downsizing".

All of the dismissed workers are members of the Warehouse Harbor Shipyard and Maritime Workers Union (DGD-Sen). They say that they have been dismissed due to their union activities. Accordingly, they have started protesting in front of the warehouse.

Yesterday's (January 16) protest was also attended by union authorities. Speaking at the protest, DGD-Sen Chair Murat Bostancı denounced the executives of the warehouse for not meeting with them.

Çetin Demir, who has been working for warehouses for 17 years, tells bianet that he was dismissed on January 2 because he took part in union activities.

Telling us that he started working in the warehouse of Şok Markets in May 2019, Demir says that everything was normal before the union. After the executives heard about the union, they started exerting pressure on him. He tells the following in brief to bianet:

'They started pressuring after they heard the union'

"They dismissed me on January 2. My three friends in total were dismissed on January 3 and 4. Everything was fine when I started working in May. We were fine despite heavy working conditions. We started organizing around October and wanted to bring the union in. At this stage, they started exerting pressure on us. They tried to make us miserable psychologically.

"They intimidated us by writing down minutes on various excuses and taking our defense almost everyday, but we kept on doing our job without mistake. When they made sure that it was us who initiated the organization for the union, they dismissed us.

'I learned my dismissal with a text message'

"I learned that I was dismissed with a text message. It was written in the message that my labor contract was terminated due to plans of reorganization and downsizing. It is obviously a lie, just the day after we were dismissed, they hired others in our place. In fact, on the day when I was dismissed, another person started working there.

'They took no account of us'

"When we heard about it, we started protesting. We only wanted what is our right, we wanted union, we wanted a more secure job. We will keep on protesting till the day when we are reinstated.

"We got in contact with the general management, but we did not receive an affirmative reply to our request for a meeting. They wanted to speak to the executives of the warehouse. They took no account of us."

Demir also refers to the bad working conditions in the warehouse and says that they want the reinstatement of the dismissed. "I know the exploitation there and we will keep on struggling against it", he adds. (HA/SD)