News

UNI Graphical & Packaging Global Union is calling on Turkish company E-Kart Electronic Card Systems to respect its workers’ right to organise.



UNI and Turkish union Basin-Is say union activists and other workers have been victims of a vicious anti-union campaign in an effort by management to break the union and avoid collective bargaining.



The union has been trying to get recognition at E-Kart, a joint venture security printing company of Turkish Eczacibasi Group and German Giesecke & Devrient GMBH (G&D), for three years. A year ago, workers went on strike to demand their union rights.



E-Kart workers will hold a protest to mark the first anniversary of the strike at Eczacibasi Group Kanyon Head Office on June 16.



Both parent companies claim that they respect workers’ right to unionise but they have stood by as local management has dismissed 10 union activists this year.



Including the latest dismissals, E-Kart management had dismissed 23 union members since August 2006 because of their union activities. While an overwhelming majority of E-Kart workers supported the union at the start of the organising drive three years ago, management has sacked many of them, which is illegal in Turkey. Court decisions so far have held up a number of workers’ claims that they were fired unlawfully.



Management at E-Kart and its parent companies have rebuffed attempts by the union to start negotiations on union recognition and a collective agreement.



G&D and Eczacibasi executives claim they recognise freedom of association and the collective bargaining rights of their workers but have done nothing to ensure E-Kart workers have those rights.



Four decisions from the Turkish Supreme Court, made at the end of 2007, uphold the right of Basin-Is to represent E-Kart workers and negotiate with the employer for a collective agreement. The Supreme Court also ruled that two workers dismissed during the organising activities were dismissed as a result of their union membership.



UNI & UNI Europa Graphical & Packaging and its sister unions worldwide are supporting

E-Kart workers. UNI will be at Kanyon with Basin-Is and E-Kart workers demanding the company respect core labour rights, recognise the union and bargain a collective agreement in good faith.