INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-TURKEY:

METALWORKERS FIRED FOR FORMING A UNION:

The following story and appeal is from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start.

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Act NOW!

Turkey: Metal workers sacked for union membership:

A workers' struggle for their jobs and rights at Sinter Metal Đmalat Sanayi AŞ (located in the Dudullu Organized Industrial Zone, Turkey) has gone on for three months. An overwhelming majority of the 470 workers are members of Birlesik Metal-IS trade union. In December 2008, the company fired 350 workers including union leaders, not due to the economic crisis as the employer attempted to claim,but due to their union membership, as confirmed in a Labour Ministry finding. The IMF, EMF and unions demand that the company immediately reinstates the dismissed workers, stops violations of workers' rights, and in good faith considers the workers’ demands and promptly starts negotiations to reach a fair and just settlement.

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THE LETTER:

Please go to THIS LINK to Sinter Metal in Turkey.

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I join with the IMF, EMF and Birlesik Metal-IS in demanding that Sinter Metal immediately stops and remedies violations of worker and trade union rights at the operation located in the Dudullu Organized Industrial Zone in Turkey. I am increasingly alarmed that such violations continue to undermine workers' rights to form and join a union and to collectively bargain, enshrined in ILO conventions 98 and 87. I demand that Sinter Metal management immediately reinstates the dismissed workers, stops violations of fundamental worker and trade union rights, and in good faith considers the workers' demands and starts negotiations to reach a fair and just settlement with the union.