IKEA must tackle anti-worker culture present in its global network
The group of 40 unions and IKEA co-workers from 16 countries met in Stockholm over the last two days and agreed a new statement demanding the company addresses allegations of worker harassment in Turkey directly. The Alliance also expressed its disappointment that Inter IKEA failed to attend the meeting.
IKEA Workers from Turkey were unable to attend the meeting because of fears of reprisals. IKEA’S Turkey operation allegedly pays employees to leave the KOOP-IS union which represents them.
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Head of UNI Commerce, Alke Boessiger said, “IKEA has to get a grip on what is happening in its name in Turkey. These allegations are serious and IKEA which promotes itself as good employer must take action. This is a serious reputational risk for the company which may turn shoppers away.”
IKEA has around 2,000 employees in 5 stores, in Turkey. KOOP-IS says a dozen workers have been fired because they were in a union and there is anti-union culture across the company’s operation in Turkey.
Boessiger added, “This is union-busting and inexcusable for a company of IKEA’s global reputation. Workers’ rights are part of human rights and IKEA has an obligation to apply them across the worldwide network for which it is ultimately responsible.”
The Alliance made the following demands on IKEA in its concluding statement:
• IKEA must respect the right of all IKEA workers to join a union.
• IKEA to be consistent in their approach to labour relations and social dialogue.
The Alliance statement said, “In order to exercise these fundamental rights, unions must be given access to the workers in order to speak to workers about their rights and about the benefit of joining a union, all of which would allow workers to make an informed decision. Social dialogue includes dialogue with trade unions and we expect this practice to be applied consistently around the globe in all IKEA operations.”
The UNI IKEA Global Union Alliance stressed it was ready to engage with the company as long as it showed good faith in working to rectify the deficiencies in its global network. However it also says it is planning a series a global solidarity actions to draw attention to the current unacceptable situation across the IKEA network.