Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
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A letter from THY (Turkish Airlines)workers for international solidarity
web page : http://www.29mayisbirligi.com/
email : 29mayisbirligi@gmail.com
We are writing this letter to build a solidarity in order to call and have a pressure on the Turkish Airlines board, for the reinstatement of 305 Turkish Airlines workers whom had been fired unjustly.
Here’s the summary of what has happened in Turkish Airlines:
With the courage of being the majority in the parliament, the government party had enforced a law, being the first experience in the world which bans the right of strike in the aviation sector. For sure it followed the reaction of workers and public against that anti-democratic law. However, instead of organizing a strong reaction which could be done even by a little effort, Hava-İş, the only union existing in the aviation sector, chose to demand their members not to go their work, by texting to their cell phones just a night before. By following the union’s call, there have been cabin crews not going at their work by an excuse of being sick, justified with the official medical certificates. Thus, starting from the morning of 29 May, there have been several delays and around 130 cancellations happened in the Turkish Airlines flights due to lack of crew.
However, the union Hava-İş, failed to undertake this right reaction and literally forebear from the responsibility by declaring “this strike is not a decision of our union, the workers are not going to their work by acting in their own initiative!” Since, on the text that the union had sent to their members’ cell phones, it was already written that “ our members had declared that they do not feel themselves ready to work”. This attitude of the union together with the employer’s announcement of dismissal for the ones who had taken the medical certificate led the flights started around noon. As a result, without a compensation, the employer fired 260 cabin crew and 45 technicians randomly being chosen from the ones whom had taken the medical certificate or others that gathered on the airport supporting the action happened on 29th of May
Whereas, just as the admission of Metin Külünk, the member of the parliament that had proposed the no-strike clause, the board of Turkish Airlines is the one itself that had started all these by ordering this unjust law. Furthermore, the workers had been informed about their dismissals in a similar unjust way, like only receiving text to their cell phones. After what happened all, the Turkish Airlines board had announced the salaries of their own workers, targeting them on public, thus committed an another offence!
It is obvious that, through the government party AKP, this attempt of banning the right of strike will not be bound only in the aviation, but also will cover other sectors of transportation and eventually all branches of business. Thus, all workers are on the target, as well as the aviation workers. For this reason, what unions should do is nothing but to organize a united resistance against this threat. However instead, Hava-İş put some few cabin crews forth with doing a ‚political show‘, and thus laid the groundwork for the dismissal of 305 workers. For that reason, the reliance of workers to their own union had completely gone. So unfortunately we cannot talk about any success of the union. The truth is, even though the gathering on the airport keeps going under the sense of doing ‚resistance‘, the workers are no longer supporting this ‚expectancy‘.
We, the ones who had suffered wrong, got fired and haven’t been protected by the union, came together and created the „29 May Solidarity“ in order to resist against all of these and to get our jobs back. Our lawyer friends will be taking care for the legal process of reinstatements without demanding any amount of money. We have our labor in, which brought Turkish Airlines Company at this point. We did not commit any kind of offence under the laws. So, we will keep on announcing the huge injustice that we have encountered.
We will be looking for your solidarity for our right struggle.
THY 29 May Solidarity