—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Rail workers in Turkey’s Izmir province strike for higher wages

Some 340 members of the Turkish Railway Workers’ Union in Izmir province on Turkey’s west coast went on strike Nov. 8-15 against the IZBAN transit company, which is owned by the provincial and municipal governments.

The workers demanded a 24 percent wage increase, which would have brought the lowest pay to $533 a month, and additional bonus pay. Bosses increased their offer from 12 to 15 percent, but the unionists rejected that and continued the strike. IZBAN employed 14 replacement workers.

“Working conditions are heavy,” a worker told the Istanbul daily Star. “We travel 350-400 kilometers [220-250 miles] daily.” He said some think the workers make big money. “But that’s wrong. I make 1,485 lira ($450). We’re not demanding much. We want the people of Izmir to support us.”

Oguz Ozcamli, representative of the Confederation of Public Employees, announced his union’s support for the striking rail workers and said IZBAN’s use of strikebreakers was endangering safety. Railway Workers’ Union members at the state-owned national railroad also backed the strike.

Officials ended the walkout Nov. 15 after bosses added a modest increase of bonus pay to the 15 percent wage hike.

— Yasemin Aydinoglu

NZ meat workers celebrate gains, continue fight against AFFCO

WAIROA, New Zealand — Close to 100 AFFCO meat workers gathered at a marae (Maori community center) here Oct. 29 to celebrate another victory in their fight to defend their union and working conditions and to thank all who have supported them. The Court of Appeal Oct. 6 upheld an Employment Court ruling that AFFCO’s 2015 lockout of some 200 workers here was illegal.

Officials of the Meat Workers Union, E tu union (“stand tall” in Maori) and Council of Trade Unions were guests at the celebration.

In September 2015, AFFCO, owned by anti-union food giant Talleys, demanded workers returning from seasonal layoff at eight of its plants sign Individual Employment Agreements instead of renegotiating the union contract.

Workers at Wairoa refused and were locked out. Unionists fought back, organizing protests, distributing donated food and publicizing their fight at Parliament in Wellington and court hearings in Auckland. All but 32 were called back to work in February after the Employment Court ordered their reinstatement.

Delegations from the Whanganui and Feilding plants — where AFFCO has refused to rehire selected union members for the season in breach of seniority — attended the social.

In Feilding members of the Communist League learned Nov. 11 that 15 unionists, including all shop stewards and the union president, have not been rehired, allegedly because of “bad attendance,” including approved time off.

Working union members are fundraising to support those still out and joining pickets at the plant. When the company told them to stop wearing union T-shirts on the picket line, “I told them what I wear out here is my business,” said union President Kevin Hickey.

Bargaining for a new contract began in November, ordered by the Employment Court after the company tried to use new labor laws to walk away from negotiations.

AFFCO has appealed the latest court ruling and those ordering compensation for lost wages.

“We’re a bit brassed off,” said Joe Blake, a long-time beef grader at the Wairoa plant. “They’re trying to shut down the union through the courts.”

“We didn’t make this stand just for us, just for now,” Wairoa Union Secretary Justin Kaimoana, told Radio New Zealand Oct. 6. “We made it for our fathers, our grandfathers who stood up for the union back in the heyday of meat workers and for the future, for our kids.”

— Felicity Coggan