Trade Unionist Press Release

Support for Turkish UPS workers continues today

Trade unionists around the world will continue their campaign in support of sacked UPS workers in Turkey today, building on the successes achieved by an action day on 1 September which persuaded UPS management into talks with the Turkish trade union TÜMTIS, while maintaining pressure for the reinstatement of the personnel apparently sacked for wishing to join it.

Since April 2010, 160 employees of UPS Turkey have been dismissed without any application of the procedures specified by Turkish law. All of the workers are union members or were interested in union representation. On 2 July 2010, the conflict escalated even further when the manager of a sub-contractor fired shots at the office of a notary public in Izmir where, union representatives reported, he had been trying to force workers to resign their union membership (see www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/4662/region/1/section/0/order/1)

The action day saw significant actions in 28 countries (see Breaking News at www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/ups-justice.cfm). The ITF, which is coordinating the continuing support, is backing negotiations with UPS in order to achieve the unconditional reinstatement of 160 workers, an end to victimisation, and the establishment of formal dialogue between UPS and TÜMTIS.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “September the first put this matter firmly on UPS’s agenda and, then as now, we welcomed the mediation efforts from the company’s headquarters in Atlanta and Brussels. However we have to ensure that they are mirrored by the management in Turkey, and to ensure that we are making sure that the pressure is maintained and, if needs be, will form part of an upcoming respect and safety week from the sixth to twelfth of October.”