Since 2002, under the policies of the ruling AKP, workers and labourers in Turkey have become poorer and have lost many of their rights. Over the past 20 years, unionisation rates among workers have plummeted. Around 200,000 workers were affected by twenty strikes that were banned. In Türkiye, every year, more than 1,500 workers die in workplace accidents.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security’s report from January 2003, out of 4,686,618 registered workers, 2,717,326 (or 57.98%) were union members. However, in the Ministry’s report from January 2023, only 2,330,988 out of 16,163,549 workers (a mere 14.42%) were union members. Even though being part of a union is a constitutional right, unionised workers in Turkey either get fired or are forced to resign due to pressure and violence. Workers who take action face the repression of both employers and law enforcement.
The struggles of workers from AS Plastik, Akcanlar Tekstil, and Agrobay, who were sacked for joining a union, are just a few examples of this. The common grievances among workers are long working hours, low wages, and the struggle to make ends meet. Kenan, a 9-year employee at AS Plastik, who was sacked after joining a union, explains that he worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. His words summarise the situation of workers who are dismissed on false grounds for unionising in Türkiye: “A year ago, I was elected as the workplace representative. A month ago, the boss called me into his office. I sat across from him. He said, ‘Kenan, I never really liked you. I tried hard to, but I just could not.’ I told him he did not have to like me, that we had a boss-worker relationship. He replied, ‘Okay, but I don’t want to work with you anymore.’ He fired me because there was union activity here. He dismissed us under Code 46. After me, the firings continued. The threats and pressure are still ongoing.”
