we were being made work half an hour longer. Let’s say I have to work 45 hours a week, if its 10 hours more, it makes 55 hours. But we were not even working for 55 hours, but for 65, 70 or 75 hours a week. We were subjected to rude behaviour and speeches. We heard that a company called Saica would buy the company. The manager gathered us before April 1 and talked to us. He said “As long as I am here, no union can enter this factory. If we have to, we can leave this place and have fist fights, but this won’t work.” He said “You will get severance pays, everybody should know their places from now on.” Eventually, the sale happened and the new employer arrived. We had heard that there was a union at Saica’s factory in Eskişehir. So we said, “let’s bring that union here, apparently it is our legal right.” In the meantime, we saw that the new foreign general director was holding meetings with us and talked transparently. He said: “We don’t have any connection in Turkey, we’re a very strong company, we’ll pay your salaries on time, we will no longer pay your salaries in cash.” Another problem was that part of our salaries was transferred to our bank accounts and the remaining amount was paid in cash. Overtime pays were paid in cash. These were not recorded in our payrolls. That is why we never received any payrolls. So we started to unionise from that day onwards. Within one day we recruited 79 people out of 86 blue-collar workers, and the Union only needed 50+1 to obtain competency. We applied to the Ministry of Labour as a union. After we received the competency determination notice from the Ministry, the director of the factory called some of our friends to the office, and others, including myself, to the printing machine inside the factory. We passed by the dispatching warehouse and arrived at security. There he said “you should definitely give up. Nobody should get hurt. If necessary, I’ll give you 200-300 [TL] and you let this go.” I said, “If that’s the case, why didn’t you pay 200-300 [TL] before?” Then he said “Not this union. Don’t bring Selüloz-İş Union here. They are aggressive. Bring me another union, bring me Ağaç-İş Union.” I thought if someone who is against me is telling me this, then it will not be good for me. May 29, I cannot forget that day because it is my birthday. They dismissed us three days before the end of the month of Ramadan. They wanted me to sign a paper that was unacceptable in every way. It read “Due to familial and personal 98 C O L L E C T I V E R I G H T S O F W O R K E R S U N D E R T U R K E Y ’ S C O N T I N U O U S S TAT E O F E M E R G E N C Y T R A D E U N I O N R I G H T S I N E U R O P E A N A N D E U R O P E A N - A F F I L I AT E D E N T E R P R I S E S reasons and because I need money, and the employer changed, I would like to receive severance pay and quit my job based on my own consent.” They told us to have the notary sign this paper. “Then bring me the paper and I’ll pay you,” they said. They thought we would accept the compensation and leave, but I refused. We started to resist in front of the workplace and demanded the employer to recognize our freedom of association and reinstate the six dismissed workers. We have been continuing our resistance for days with the help of our Union and those who come here to support us. We are determined to continue. Aykut Güner: Saica Pack started its production in Turkey earlier when it purchased a domestic company in Eskişehir called OMK. Similar to here, unionisation at this factory started after it was bought by Saica and workers were also dismissed there. In fact, the main union representative there is one of our friends who was dismissed during the unionisation and was later reinstated to his job when they won the reinstatement lawsuit. We have been organised at that factory for 6 years. It is a workplace where collective agreement continues. Saica Pack bought this place in April 2019. Their company there is called “Saica Pack Ambalaj” and the legal entity of this place here is called “Saica Pack Sakarya Ambalaj.” Because their legal entities are different, they do not have the status of enterprise.109* Here, we unionised ourselves in a very short period and made an application to the Ministry to determine the majority on April 24. Mid-May, around May 15-20, our competency was determined. We waited for six workdays and as expected, the employer used its right object within six working days. Nearly two weeks following their objection, dismissals started. Before their objection and after the unionisation, we had already heard that there would be dismissals. The factory director from Norm Ambalaj had already put some serious pressure. Encouraging our friends to join another union, offering them a raise, threatening them with dismissals, etc. The reason he was pushing so much, as my friend mentioned, was that he had said: “as long as I am here, no union can enter this place.” Because he did not want to be embarrassed for not achieving what he said, he used all kinds of anti-democratic measures. Eventually, he was the first to be dismissed. 109 * According to current legislation different workplaces under the same title are considered an enterprise and the union competency covers all of them. INTERVIEW SUMMARIES 99