Association executives detained by anti-terror police over declaration on workers’ wages

* Photo: Cem Türkel

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The executives of the Precarious Workers' Association have been taken into custody after they distributed leaflets protesting the low daily wages given to agricultural workers and calling on them to halt work.

Speaking to bianet, their attorney Sebahat Gençtarih has said that association chair Abdulselam Kutlu and executives Fazıl Sevinç and Fadıl Acar are held in detention at the Anti-Terror Branch of the Provincial Directorate of Security in the eastern Mediterranean province of Mersin.

Gençtarih has also indicated that as there is a confidentiality order on the investigation file, they will be able to learn the charges brought against the three during the interrogation. As far as the attorney could learn, the workers will be faced with charges "related to the organization."

Association executives will depose today (September 16).

They want 116 lira daily wage

In the leaflets titled "Manifesto" and now apparently cited as "criminal evidence", agricultural workers were called on to halt work as the negotiations on daily wages between the workers' associations in Çukurova region and the Mediterranean Exporters Union (AKİB) failed.

In the above leaflet, the workers were called "to stay home" and to "continue with this sit-in protest until a result is obtained."

While the workers demanded 116 lira (~15 USD) daily wage, they have supported this protest as their demand was not met.

Confidentiality order on the file

Attorney Sebahat Gençtarih has shared the following information about the detention of three association executives:

"A week ago, they bargained with the employers for daily wages. After a single meeting was held, their requests for appointments were rejected. And they announced that until their daily wages were arranged accordingly, they would not go to work and released a declaration. Several agricultural workers have halted work in Adana, Antakya and Mersin after this declaration.

"Abdulselam Kutlu and two people from the association's executive board went to the workers' shuttles on the roadside yesterday morning. Informing the workers about the issue, they told them, 'We halt work in protest, support us.' They were taken into custody there.

"We could not find anyone to respond to us at the Security Directorate yesterday, we could not learn what the charges were. Today, we have seen that a confidentiality order has been imposed on the file." (AS/SD)