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Last Friday, the first-ever strike in Seventy years of existence took place at IBM Turkey. More than 200 participants, half of which were from IBM and the other half from other IT companies, joined the action in front of IBM building.



The main message delivered to the press by the strikers was directed to IBM’s CEO Sam Palmisano who will host the Business Leadership Forum in Istanbul next November. A protest letter will be sent to the 400 participants of this Forum, which is a gathering of business and institutional leaders to discuss the changes in the global economy. In short the message is “Fix the problem or don’t come to Istanbul”.



Just before the press conference happened, IBM management felt the threat and called for a town meeting. Management is clearly trying to stop unionization and break solidarity among employees by saying the strike is damaging the business, as they previously did in Poland. But the union’s answer was clear: they will stop once IBM management will withdraw the unfair lawsuit and recognize the union.



On top of that, IBM Turkey seems to have financial problems and might be unable to protect the employees’ retention savings which amounts to US$ 200 million, according to an internal source. The CEO of IBM Turkey even declared that the company would go bankruptcy if the retention plan stays the same. UNI Global Union condemns this misbehavior since it’s not the workers’ role to take responsibility for some misguided management strategies.

Strikers in front of IBM building saying to management: "We are not cows!"