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IBM Turkey has refused recognition of UNI affiliate TEZ-KOOP and taken to the court instead.

Although the union TEZ-KOOP has organised more than 80% of IBM staff, what had be certified by the Turkish Minister of Labour, IBM refused to recognise the union. IBM maintains their position despite a number of protest actions in Turkey and a UNI solidarity campaign, in which over 300 protest notes had been sent by UNI affiliates to IBM mangement in the US, Europe and Turkey.

At a press conference in Istanbul organised by TEZ-KOOP on 5 September, TEZ-KOOP President Gürsel Dogru, condemned IBM management and said that their behaviour was unacceptable. He urgently appealed to IBM management to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a collective agreement as IBM employees had wished.

UNI representatives Koen Dries of LBC Belgium, IBITS Vice-President and Gerhard Rohde, Head of Department also addressed the well attended press conference.

Koen Dries told journalists, that IBM would only live up to their own ambitious HR programs if a strong union forced them to do. IBM should live the vision they convey to customers internally with their employees. Koen said “IBM walk the talk!”

Gerhard Rohde said that a knowledge company like IBM has to respect their employees, their most valuable asset, otherwise sends a negative message to investors, customers and the public. He also said that by exploiting loop holes in Turkish labour law IBM played all those in the hands, who don’t want Turkey to become a member of the European Union.

Turkish labour law sets 501% organisation density as the threshold for recognition. The Labour Minister has testified the figures to be correct, yet IBM challenges the numbers and the competence of TEZ-KOOP to collective bargaining in this sector.

Unfortunately, this is a common practice in Turkey and frequently exercised by other companies as well. It protracts the recognition process, since court proceedings can easily take a year or longer. The trade union must during the whole period maintain an organisation level of at least 51%, otherwise the recognition procedure will be suspended.

Against this background, which is a clear shortcoming in Turkish Labour Law, companies try to protract the procedure hoping that trade union density level falls under the threshold. There is a big risk for the union for this to happen since during the whole period they cannot enter into collective bargaining and not offer any results to their members.

TEZ-KOOP, however, is very optimistic that they will win this conflict and keep alive the desire for a trade union among IBM employees.

The organising success at IBM has led TEZ-KOOP to set up an internal division for the ICT sector and launch wide ranging initiatives in the sector in order to spread unionism among IT professionals.

In the evening of 5 September, TEZ-KOOP together with the Association of electrical engineers, EOM, organised kick off event, which was attended by over 150 participants from various ICT companies including IBM and Vodafone.

Koen Dries and Gerhard Rohde, who attended the event, congratulated TEZ-KOOP leadership for this ground breaking initiative and told participants about activities, experience and good practice in organising ICT in other countries. Koen Dries encouraged the union and the activists to go ahead. He said it had taken LBC in Belgium several years before concluding the first collective agreement with IBM. Once that had been done, the union had improved its image among ICT professionals profoundly and agreements with other ICT companies followed soon.

From left: K.Dries, G. Rohde, TEZ-KOOP President Gürsel Dogru and Board Members

Protest banner at front of the Istanbul Technical University