Kazova Workers, a group of textile workers who launched an occupation protest after being fired with no repartitions or deserved wages in early 2013 and obtained their own factory machines after months of struggle, have now formed their cooperative.
Although the process was hard, as it took months for officials to approve the cooperative for the word “democracy” in the constitution of the cooperative, according to Kazova Cooperative Board Member Ahmet Demirtaş.
“After our resistance was over with victory, we opened up our own store on January 26. Following that, we started to work on to launch our cooperative. However it was hard to approve our constitution from the officials at Industry, Science and Technology Ministry.
“The constitution said that the cooperative will work with a democratic process. However, the ministry said this term was ‘political’ and it couldn’t be a part of the constitution. We said that we already knew this and struggled to make them accept it, but they didn’t.”
On the other hand, Kazova Workers are expending their business. Now, they are on a struggle to launch their own workshop and factory.
Tapped phones
Demirtaş claimed that that their phones had been tapped within a “fight against terrorism” investigation.
He explained that Turkey’s Terror and Organized Crime Investigation Bureau sent them a notice in August, saying that they have been included in a technical monitoring and the results showed that “no investigation was necessary”.
“We will continue to produce sweaters”
Ahmet Demirtaş also added that they have completed all procedures and started up their cooperative.
“There are 12 workers in the cooperative administration. It will also open a workshop and factory. Our only goal is to start producing as soon as possible. We will continue to produce sweaters. We will open our first workshop in Bayrampaşa, Istanbul.”
“We will also sell the machines that we occupied during our resistance and buy new ones. We will sell our products in our store. We want to open our factory within 6 months.”
Kazova Workers are organizing a dinner tonight (7pm local time) dedicated to their workshop, factory and machines in Afrodit Wedding Hall, Istanbul.
“We came to this point by struggle,” Demirtaş said. (AS/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
