'Women resist not only for labor rights or wage increases, but for survival as well'

* Photo: JinNews

Click to read the article in Turkish

The workers of Farplas Automotive factory in Kocaeli Gebze Automotive Procurement Specialized Organized Industrial Zone have been protesting for better work conditions and wages since late January.

Feminist women met the resisting workers in front of the Farplas factory in western Turkey yesterday (February 22). Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MPs Züleyha Gülüm and Oya Ersoy also joined the group who opened banners that read, "With a feminist outcry against poverty, we stand with Farplas workers" and "Reinstate the dismissed workers."

Women also carried banners of "Kindergarten for every workplace" and "Equal pay for equal job", chanting the slogans "We will win by resisting", "Farplas workers are not alone" and "We will send away the company union". Tehe group emphasized that women workers have been resisting not only for union rights or wage increases but for their survival as well.

As reported by JinNews, feminist activist Selin Top said that the resistance of Farplas workers has been a hope for all workers in Turkey:

While we were considering what we go through amid this economic crisis, we believed that all struggles should stand side by side. And this resistance of yours is our resistance as well. We are trying to bring this word along with us everywhere.

According to Selin Top, "the employers at Farplas factory have been trying to portray themselves as democrats and, in the meantime, they try to put the yellow union against the United Metalworkers' Union."

Noting that women have been struggling at the very forefront in this process, Top said that it makes the resistance even more meaningful:

"Women take to the streets not only for a wage increase, they do it for equal pay for equal jobs as well. Because though we do the same job, they do not give us equal pay. Farplas promotes itself as women-friendly, saying that 50 percent of its workers are women, in a PR stunt.

But we know that the reason why women are employed more is that we are a cheap labor force. They introduce lower increases to our wages and in a place which boasts about being women-friendly, there is neither a kindergarten nor a mechanism that will stand up against it when women are subjected to violence, harassment or mobbing.

Following the speech of feminist activist Top, women chanted the slogans of "We will win by resisting" and protested further in ululations.

What happened?

The workers of Farplas factory demanded a wage increase. However, finding the pay rise offer made on January 19 insufficient, the workers halted work at the factory in protest. The employer started negotiating with workers in response to this. During the negotiations, the employer promised workers that no workers would be dismissed in this process.

While production resumed on January 20, the negotiations also continued. In the meantime, the workers who were not members of a union started joining the United Metalworkers' Union. They also received their authorization certificate from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. Amid these developments, the employer dismissed nearly 150 workers, both members and non-members of the union, by citing the Code-29. As the reason for the dismissal, the employer referred to their protest on January 19.

In response to the employer's attitude not recognizing the workers' right to unionize and dismissing workers, the workers' resistance grew.

The workers of the Farplas locked themselves up in the factory for their union rights on January 31. While production stopped at the factory, the dismissed workers started protesting inside the factory.

Shortly afterwards, the police stormed the factory, taking several workers, union representatives and the ones who were there in support into custody. In a statement released by the United Metalworkers' Union later in the day, it was announced the detained workers were released. (EMK/SD)