Organising Turkish retail: The story of Tez-Koop-IS

Published: 5 July 2010

Google translate:

With an unaccostomed method the biggest trade union organising in recent years was carried out in Tesco Kipa which is the name of Tesco's Turkish operations. Tesco is the world’s 4th greatest retailer.

In addition to the international solidarity, Tez-Koop-Is has successfully concluded the organising campaign in Tesco Kipa by arranging meetings with workers in coffeehouses and contacting citizen, women and student associations.

According to the information that the AA reporter received, Tesco is the world’s 4th largest retailer with its 472.000 employees in more than 4800 stores in 14 countries. Tez-Koop-IS has been organising the Tesco stores in Turkey since 2003 and at the end secured the majority with the efforts intensified over the last three years.

In the examination of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, it was found that 7644 employees are working in Tesco Kipa and 3922 (51.3%) of them are affiliated to the union. Tez-Koop-Is became the recognized union in Tesco Kipa workplaces.

In 2004, the employer appealed to the majority determination of the ministry. Because of the failure as a result of the appeal this time the union launched a new organising effort by using various channels.

In its second attempt the union got the support of UNI Commerce Tesco Global Alliance which was established by the affiliates of UNI Global Union in 2008. The Alliance made an attempt to support the organising efforts of the union and to provide a respect of the will of the workers. Moreover, an organising meeting held in Izmir with the participation of Philip Bowyer, UNI Global Union Deputy General Secretary and the stores in the city were visited.

Besides the international solidarity the union benefited from NGO’s in order to improve the organising channels and to contact with the workers.

Tez-Koop-Is carried out the organising outside the workplace and via contacts with citizens, women and student associations they managed to reach the employees. The oganisers received help from the student associations active in the universities to talk with the students who are working as part-time employees in weekends.

In order to organise the women employees, the union made use of the women associations and met with the men employees in coffehouses.

As a result of these efforts the union organised the majority of the employees in 14 provinces and more than 100 stores.

The organising effort by TEZ-KOOP-IS must be considered a success in an era when union membership needs to be protected, and by organising Tesco Kipa the union left most of the other unions’ total memberships behind.

The Federation TÜRK-IS hosted the press confernce

“We want respect to the decison”

Tez-Koop-Is President, Gürsel Dogru, said:

“This is an important decision for Tesco Kipa’s employees. Our membership majority has been approved by the Ministry of Labour, which means that Tez-Koop-Is is the authorised union in Tesco Kipa. We now wish urgently to meet with Tesco’s senior management in Turkey to discuss how we can work in a constructive partnership, in the way that Tesco works with USDAW in the UK, to further the interests of both the company and its employees. We hope that Tesco will accept the overwhelming vote of its employees to join the union and will not appeal against the Ministry’s decision. An appeal is considered in Turkey to be an anti-union approach by a company. Tesco Kipa should respect the decision of the Ministry and recognise the competence of our union.”

TEZ-KOOP-IS' President Gürsel Dogru centre

Tez-Koop-Is union was established in 1962 and is active in branches of trade, cooperatives, education, office and fine arts. Headquartered in Ankara, it has 19 branches in 14 cities with around 45,000 members, 35,000 of whom are covered by collective agreements. A third of its members are from the public sector.

Tez-Koop-Is has long been organised in supermarket chains Migros, Carrefour, Real and Tansas. It is the leading trade union organisation in the retail sector in Turkey.

Workers and union reps at the press conference Sign says: Kipa workers are not alone