“Piya Food workers are not alone”

‘Şeker-İş’ Labour Union organized a protest in ‘Piya Food’ to re-employ workers whose employment contracts were terminated after they became union members.

A protest was held in Istanbul Esenyurt District for the Piya Food workers who were dismissed the other day. The dismissal of 2 workers and the forced resignation of one worker by mobbing in Piya Food, which operates as a distributor of a beverage company, prompted the Turkish Food and Sugar Industry Workers (Şeker-İş) Union to act. Many unions serving in various fields also supported the ‘Şeker-İş’ Union, which organized a protest in front of Piya Food Warehouse for the workers whose employment contracts were terminated during the winter months after they became a member of the union. In the protest that started with the slogans chanting that “Piya Food workers were not alone”, a press release was read by Serkan Gümüşbaş, Organizing Specialist of ‘Şeker-İş’ Union. 

“EMPLOYERS TRY TO AVOID THE MOST DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEES” 

In the press statement held in front of Piya Food Warehouse, Serkan Gümüşbaş, Organizing Specialist of ‘Şeker-İş’ Union, emphasizing that being a member of a union is a clearly recognized right in Article 51 of the Constitution, “It is emphasized that the employment contract of the worker cannot be terminated because he-she is a member of a union, in Article 25 of the Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining Agreement Law, which was prepared on the basis of the constitutional right. The Turkish Penal Code also decrees that pressures on the right to be a union member are punished with imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years. However, despite all these legal and constitutional rights in our country, workers are still being dismissed because they are unionized, and efforts are made to prevent their most democratic rights,” Gümüşbaş said. 

“THERE IS NO WAY OUT BUT TO UNITE” 

Stating that ‘Şeker-İş’ Union will follow the rights of member workers, “We see once again on the occasion of the incident that there is no other way out for employees than to organize and unite forces against these unlawfulnesses. From here, as ‘Şeker-İş’ Union, we ask Piya Food employer to give up their strict and unacceptable attitudes, to recognize the right to work with a union and to address the problem through dialogue. We express that it should be resolved, and we call for the reemployment of our colleagues who were dismissed because they are union members,” Serkan Gümüşbaş added.