DEDAŞ re-hires striking workers – action ends in Urfa

Featured image: Workers of the company DEDAŞ have striked in multiple provinces of Turkey for the right to unionize. Source: Yeni Demokrasi

On the 24th of July we reported that since 21st of July, workers of the electricity company DEDAŞ striked in six south-eastern provinces of Turkey for the right to unionize, higher pay and compensation for working overtime, during holidays and at night, as well as for other improvements in the working conditions. Police was dispatched against the workers, with TOMAs (armored water cannon trucks) brought to the scene, and hundreds were dismissed in multiple provinces for participating in protests. Now some of the workers have been re-hired, and the action ended in the province of Urfa.

In Urfa, many learned that they were fired via text message on the grounds of taking part in the protest and expressing their will to be part of the union. One worker testified that he had been sick with pneumonia because of the working conditions on the 21st and he was also fired. He described that the workers live in shacks made out of metal plates and rest on pallets, expressing that this is one of the reasons why they demand improvements and the right to unionize. Another worker said that because of the inflation, which the central bank of Turkey expects to reach 58% in the end of the year, the wages are simply not enough to get along. In food prices, the inflation is expected to reach 61%.

Now DEDAŞ re-hired the fired workers in Viranşehir and Harran in the province of Urfa and promised better pay and opportunities for promotions, and most of these workers returned to work. However, how much exactly the salaries would rise was not specified. Workers affirmed that they will continue the action also in Urfa if the promises were not kept. Some of the re-hired workers in Urfa were given new positions where they are not able to join the union. In the province of Diyarbakır, a union member testified that those who were re-hired were forced to give up their union membership. According to the union DİSK Enerji Sen the company also moved workers to another sub-company in order to prevent them from joining the union.

Many of those who were fired are very poor and afraid for their and their family’s survival. This maneuver of firing and re-hiring some of the poorest workers is an attempt by DEDAŞ to split the workers, intimidate them, using the fact that the unions of the old type are not willing and not able to support the poorest on strike. One worker in Urfa explains how he did not want to return to work, but continuing could have risked him not being able to take care of his sick child: “I had to for my child and accepted to return to work. If I didn’t have a child, I certainly wouldn’t have accepted it. Unfortunately, there are such injustices in Turkish conditions. No one is standing on the side of the poor. It’s really unfortunate.”