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UNI Post & Logistics and ABVV-FGTB demand workers’ rights for UPS workers in Turkey



UNI Europa together with the Belgium Trade Union ABVV-FGTB have sent a strong signal of solidarity and for workers’ rights



More than 40 Trade Unionists of UNI Europa Post & Logistics and the Belgium Trade Union confederation ABVV-FGTB will assemble Wednesday the 30^th of June 2010 in front of the UPS centre in Istanbul. During the last 3 months because they joined the Union, 89 UPS workers have been fired by the local UPS management in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. The management are constantly threatening the remaining workers not to become Union members. The Turkish Trade Union Tümtis is organising the workers into their union and supports the fired workers, who, in Turkey, have not been eligible for a redundancy payment and have therefore no income at all.



“We can not accept that people in Europe or elsewhere in the world get punished because they join the Union. We will take this issue to the Belgian public, where the European Headquarters is located,” said Jonathan Broos, head of the delegation of ABVV-FGTB. “Workers are not tools, which you can throw away after use. A society is built on respect, trust, freedom, equality and solidarity. Touching these basic elements means to attack all Unions in the world.”



The Trade Unions demand UPS immediately reinstates the workers to their jobs and recognises the Trade Union in the company. In the last weeks several Trade Union delegations have visited the picket lines in front of the UPS sites in Istanbul and Izmir. The European Social Forum, which will take place from 1 to 4 July 2010 will set a “Schwerpunkt” on this topic.



“We demand respect for the workers by UPS management and that the workers get re-employed immediately. It is a human right to join the Union and our support for their fight for their rights is also to send a clear signal to all companies in the world, that we won’t accept such behaviour,” said Cornelia Berger, policy officer for Post & Logistics in UNI Europa. “We have created a network of global delivery workers all over the world and we have informed all of our contacts, from the Teamsters in the United States of America to our colleagues in Japan and Africa, the Americas and Asia about this. Everybody should be aware what is happening here in Turkey and that it can also appear elsewhere.”