Turkey's Ruling Party AKP Moves To Ban Aviation Strikes And Bust Turkish Airlines Union "hundreds of them received text messages to their phones informing them that they were sacked without compensation."

Turkey's Ruling Party AKP Moves To Ban Aviation Strikes And Bust Turkish Airlines Union "hundreds of them received text messages to their phones informing them that they were sacked without compensation."

Turkey: New law aims to ban strikes in aviation sector

On 10th May, Metin Külünk, a deputy of the ruling political party, proposed an amendment to Article 29 of the existing Collective Labour Agreement, Strike and Lock-Out Law as follows: "It shall not be lawful to call a strike or order a lock-out in the following activities ... Banking, public notaries and aviation services." Such an amendment would be a serious blow to the right to strike in Turkey and will bring major loss of income and hard-won rights for unionized aviation workers. This repressive parliamentary motion is now the subject of an ILO complaint submitted by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). As a reaction to this unprecedented attack Turkish Airlines workers went on mass sick leave on May 29, 2012, at 3am. In fact Turkish Civil Aviation Union (Hava-İş) members have been left with no alternative other than taking this latest action. On the very same day hundreds of them received text messages to their phones informing them that they were sacked without compensation.

http://www.havais.org.tr/eng/index.php?menu=8&content=387

The right to strike is an integral part of the freedom to associate and collectively bargain; hence it is protected by 87 and 98th conventions of the ILO as the Freedom of Association Committee of The Governing Body of ILO states:

 
“520. While the Committee has always regarded the right to strike as constituting a fundamental right of workers and of their organizations, it has regarded it as such only in so far as it is utilized as a means of defending their economic interests”.
521. The Committee has always recognized the right to strike by workers and their organizations as a legitimate means of defending their economic and social interests.
522. The right to strike is one of the essential means through which workers and their organizations may promote and defend their economic and social interests.
523. The right to strike is an intrinsic corollary to the right to organize protected by Convention No. 87.” (digest 2006).
The Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of ILO has clearly stated the criteria required for prohibition of a strike in a certain area of service. According to the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of ILO, a prohibition of a strike in essential services may be considered acceptable where there is a clear and imminent threat against the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, as the following decisions of the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of ILO points out:
“581. To determine situations in which a strike could be prohibited, the criterion which has to be established is the existence of a clear and imminent threat to the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.
582. What is meant by essential services in the strict sense of the term depends to a large extent on the particular circumstances prevailing in a country. Moreover, this concept is not absolute, in the sense that a non-essential service may become essential if a strike lasts beyond a certain time or extends beyond a certain scope, thus endangering the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.
585. The following may be considered to be essential services:
– the hospital sector
– electricity services
– water supply services
– the telephone service
– the police and the armed forces
– the fire-fighting services
– public or private prison services
– the provision of food to pupils of school age and the cleaning of schools
– air traffic control.” (digest 2006)
The Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of ILO clearly notes that the transportation industry (and the civil aviation as a sub-industry of the transportation industry) and specifically, services provided by airlines shall not be considered within the scope of the essential services (except the air-traffic control services).
587. The following do not constitute essential services in the strict sense of the term: radio and television, the petroleum sector, ports, banking, computer services for the collection of excise duties and taxes, department stores and pleasure parks, the metal and mining sectors, transport generally, airline pilots, production, transport and distribution of fuel, railway services, metropolitan transport, postal services, refuse collection services, refrigeration enterprises, hotel services, construction, automobile manufacturing, agricultural activities, the supply and distribution of foodstuffs, the Mint, the government printing service and the state alcohol, salt and tobacco monopolies, the education sector, mineral water bottling company. (digest 2006). [emphasis added]
Finally, the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of ILO attaches specific importance to the protection of rights of international airlines' workers as follows:
“244. The prohibition of trade union activities in international airlines constitutes a serious violation of freedom of association.”(digest 2006).
Since the civil aviation industry cannot be considered as an essential service and a strike in that industry may not lead to an emergence of a clear and imminent threat to the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population, prohibition of strikes in civil aviation industry means a severe violation of the right to strike, to associate and to collectively bargain and therefore, contradicts the 87 and 98th conventions of the ILO.
The amendment proposal submitted to the Turkish General Assembly by an AKP deputy, which brings a full-fledged ban on the strike in the civil aviation industry does not conform with 87 and 98th conventions of the ILO and The Decisions and Recommendations of The ILO Bodies. If the proposal is enacted, civil aviation workers’ right to strike, to associate and to collectively bargaining of will suffer a grave setback in Turkey.