British Workers Join Turkish Airlines Showdown

British Workers Join Turkish Airlines Showdown

by Tony Patey, Industrial Reporter

Morning Star online
July 31, 2012

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/122111

British trade union activists are linking arms with others
around the world to fight a vital union-busting battle in
Turkey which has wider implications in this country.

Massive banners are being put up outside Unite offices around
London in solidarity with hundreds of airline workers who were
sacked by text and email by Turkish Airlines.

They were protesting against swingeing new Turkish laws
depriving aviation workers of the right to strike and now the
airline is also taking their union Hava-Is to court.

Unite activists are building up wider support because the
escalating battle over basic trade union and human rights has
a loud echo in this country.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt publicly admitted recently that
ministers discussed sacking UK Border Agency staff threatening
to strike before the Olympics.

He told Radio 5 Live Sportsweek at the time: "Sack them? That
is the Ronald Reagan approach and I can tell you among
ministers there have been people asking whether we should be
doing that."

Unite's rank-and-file action is part of an International
Transport Workers Federation global campaign calling for the
reinstatement of the 305 sacked workers and the withdrawal of
anti-strike laws.

Unite Heathrow regional co-ordinating officer Rhys McCarthy
said: "We are fully supporting the campaign as a act of
solidarity and because reactionary governments everywhere are
taking succour from this decision."

This week 4.5 metre by 2.7 metre banners will be going up
outside Unite Heathrow and its London and Eastern Regional
Office in Green Lanes, where it works closely with the local
north London Turkish community.

They'll be flying for the next few weeks. Last week a demo
outside the Turkish embassy by around 50 trade unionists and
reps of London's Turkish and Kurdish community urged visiting
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to intervene.

The Turkish state owns 49.12 per cent of the airline and,
despite already having tough laws covering trade unions,
legislation was rushed through in May effectively banning
strikes by airline workers.

They were already involved in talks with the airline during
their yearly collective bargaining process when the
legislation came out of the blue.

The decision sparked off international protests and airline
workers wanted to demonstrate directly - but the only
industrial action allowed to them was to go on a day's sick
leave.

So 305 were sacked by text messages, email and telephone and
now the airline is also planning to take Hava-Is to court in
what the union believes is an attempt to destroy it.

ITF president Paddy Crumlin said: "There's little doubt that
the very existence of free trade unions in Turkey is under
threat."

Hava-Is said: "For us this is a question of all or nothing. We
will either win or be smashed.

"There is no other option as we have no intention of becoming
a non-functioning union."