Metal workers released from detention

* Photos: United Metal Workers' Union / Twitter

Click to read the article in Turkish

Detained in Gebze, an industrial town in Kocaeli province, yesterday (November 24), 109 people have been released from detention.

They were taken into custody during the police intervention into the attempted protest march of the metal workers who were dismissed from their jobs without severance pay or put on unpaid leave on the grounds that they had joined the United Metal Workers' Union.

Following the release of the detained, the union has announced that they will hold their planned protest march to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services in Ankara together with 20 members of the SystemAir HSK, Özer Electricity and Baldur Suspension factories today (November 25).

The union has made a call to the march that will begin at 10 a.m. local time in Turkey in front of the Gebze Branch of the union.

#Sendika, tazminat haktır; ücretsiz izin zulümdür.
Hakları gasp edilen #metal işçilerinin Ankara yürüyüşüne yapılan polis saldırısında gözaltına alınan 109 kişi serbest bırakıldı.
Yarın aynı saatte ve aynı yerde buluşuyoruz...
Direne direne kazanacağız!#MetalİşçisineYoluAç pic.twitter.com/zI6pmN3xh7

— BİRLESİK METAL-İŞ (@BirlesikMetal) November 24, 2020

'We will continue unwaveringly"

In its statement about the police intervention and the ensuing detentions, the United Metal Workers' Union has indicated that "workers have been struggling against the outbreak on the one side and resisting the attacks of the bosses on the other," underlining that "the government has once again shown that it has no tolerance for the workers' struggle for their rights."

"Having prevented our march due to the pandemic, the Governor's Office turned a blind eye to the security forces' blockade of our union branch building by violating the pandemic rules and to the harsh intervention of the police," the statement of the union has read.

Stressing that "the entire Turkey witnessed the police violence that unfolded in Gebze," the union has announced that it will "take what was done to metal workers by the Kocaeli Governor's Office" to the court and expressed its determination to "closely follow up this unlawfulness" and to "not let the voices of metal workers be silenced."

What happened?

Dismissed from their jobs without any severance pay or put on unpaid leave on the grounds that they became the members of United Metal Workers' Union, the workers of Systemair HSK, Özer Electricity and Baldur factories wanted to hold a protest march from Gebze, an industrial town in Kocaeli, to the capital city of Ankara on November 24, 2020.

United Metal Workers' Union Chair Adnan Serdaroğlu made a statement and said, "Our problem is not with fellow police officers. We are trying to claim our dismissed friends, we are trying to raise awareness against employers." Adding that "they rightly wanted to march," he also said that "it was not them, but the police officers who were violating the pandemic rules."

Police attacked the march, detaining 109 people, including workers and union executives and the members and representatives of other unions and political parties who were there to support the workers.

Making a statement after the police intervention, the United Metal Workers' Union announced that they would once again meet in front of the Gebze Branch of the union at 10 next day (November 25), expressing their determination to march to the capital city of Ankara.

On the other side, before the workers' protest, the Governor's Office of Kocali released a statement and banned meetings, demonstrations and marches to take place in Kocaeli for 30 days by referring to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as the reason for the ban.

Accordingly, citing the Article 17 of the Law no. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations, the Governor's Office of Kocaeli has banned protest demonstrations and open-air meetings from 12 a.m. on November 22 to 12 a.m. on December 21 "with the aim of curbing the spread of the disease." (TP/SD)