12.12.12 marked a day of solidarity with fired Turkish DHL workers
Nyon - Thousands of trade unionists from around the world took part in a global day of action on 12.12.12 to protest Deutsche Post DHL’s mistreatment of workers worldwide and to show solidarity with DHL workers in Turkey who were fired for exercising their right to join a union.
The protests and solidarity actions took place in dozens of countries from Ghana to Malta and from Norway to Mozambique.
One of the biggest actions took place in Belgium where over 50 activists from Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Norway and Bulgaria, as well as the ITF and ETF rallied in front of DHL Supply Chain headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium and expressed to DHL Supply Chain CEO Walter Leysen that the company’s behaviour in Turkey was unacceptable and that the fired workers must be re-instated.
Similar rallies took place in France, Australia, Swaziland, Argentina and Turkey. In the US, the Teamsters union organised workplace actions at a number of locations and in Germany, Ver.di organised a national email protest. In many other countries including Ireland, Bulgaria, the US, Malta, Malawi and Ghana, unions delivered a special seasons’ greeting card urging company officials to adopt New Years Resolutions to reinstate fired workers in Turkey, recognise workers rights globally and sign a global agreement with ITF and UNI. By same token, more than 30 representatives from 18 post and logistics trade unions meeting in Bangkok at the 14th UNI Apro Post & Logistics Committee Meeting region showed their unions' solidarity with DHL workers by signing such card.
It is worth reiterating what Ingo Marowsky, ITF organising globally coordinator, commented: “This day is about once again holding DHL to its stated but failed aims of corporate responsibility. For the sake of all those who work there we want the company to live up to its ideals and ensure the basic levels of fairness that common justice demand.”
This is a pressing issue for UNI Global Union, as deputy general secretary, Christy Hoffman states: “We are asking the questions that are increasingly being heard from DHL customers and investors: how much longer can the company refuse to act? How much longer can it ignore what is going on in some of its operations? Until DHL does take responsibility we will keep on holding it to account.”