In Source: İlerihaber. IndustriAll contacted the company’s headquarter in France, encouraging it to intervene. In response, it was argued that the dismissals were based on economic reasons. Yet, in the documents handed to the workers when they were dismissed, it clearly stated that workers’ were dismissed on grounds of disrupting the workplace order or harming the company’s prestige. org - [Protest of Günsan workers] Source: Evrensel - [Protest of Günsan workers] - Dismissed workers shall be reinstated! Source: Twitter 2014, Schneider Electric bought Turkish electrical grid equipment producer Günsan Electric. At the time the company had three factories in Turkey, in Manisa, Izmir and Gebze. BMIS was the union at these workplaces that met the criteria for entering into the collective bargaining process. - [Protest of Günsan workers] In November 2016, BMIS started its unionisation efforts at factory of Günsan, where approximately 300 workers were working in Istanbul. On the day the Union applied to the Ministry for the competence certificate, the employer dismissed six workers who had led the unionisation efforts. Moreover, the employer obtained the workers’ passwords of the e-government system to check whether certain workers were members of the Union. 58 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 Workers stopped working and started a protest to call for the reinstatement of their dismissed colleagues. The protest ended with security forces blocking the factory; this was followed by negotiations. On November 21, 2016, the Ministry issued the Union the competency certificate enabling it to commence collective bargaining at the workplace. Afterwards, at a meeting between the company’s and Union’s management, company representatives informed the Union that the dismissed workers would not be reinstated and that they would object to the Union’s competence on grounds that it operated in a different sector. The fact that the company objected to the sector of activity, and argued that it does not operate in the metal sector but in the plastic sector is questionable with view of the fact that the company is the founder of the Electromechanical Employers’ Union (EMIS). At the same time, Schneider Electric’s Izmir factory was closed and the moulds were transferred to Günsan to resume the production there. Following this, pressure in the workplace to resign from the Union increased. Management representatives showed workers a photograph of a Union specialist taken with an MP from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and claimed that the Union is a “terror supporter.” In this way, they created the risk of provoking political and ethnic divisions amongst workers. The unionisation process at the enterprise failed with legal proceedings concerning these topics are still on-going. E X A M P L E S O F C O L L E C T I V E L A B O U R R I G H T S V I O L AT I O N S I N E U R O P E A N I N V E S T M E N T E N T E R P R I S E S 59