Scandalous massacre of workers by the Syrian employer

While Türkiye is experiencing a Syrian immigrant problem, it is now the scene of worker massacres by Syrian bosses. Syrian Mazen Derawan, owner of Amana Foods, which produces salami, cold cuts and sausages under the name of halal food in Kocaeli, fired workers who were union members at midnight.

Derawan, which failed to implement the Higher Arbitration Board’s decisions and granted the collective bargaining raises, added day laborers from the subcontractor company in place of the workers it laid off.

HYGIENE SCANDAL

Workers standing guard in front of the factory claimed that the Syrian employer did not comply with hygiene conditions during food production and shared photos showing the unfavorable hygiene conditions.

Syrian businessman Derawan started processing meat and meat products in Kocaeli under the Amana Foods company he founded in Istanbul in 2016. The Türk-İş affiliated Koop-İş union started its union activities about 3 years ago at the workplace where they work 210 people.

The union reached the number of authorizations by affiliating 112 workers. However, the employer opposed the turn of the business and expanded the process leading to the collective agreement. After two years of litigation, the winners were the workers. Koop-İş, authorized by the court, invited the employer to sit at the collective bargaining table. However, when the employer did not come to the table, the union had to go on strike last May.

‘I LOVE THEM ALL’

The workers, already fighting against low wages, asked the union to vote in favor of a strike. Explaining the upcoming events to SÖZCÜ, Şahin Kaya, head of Koop-İş branch number 2 in Istanbul, responsible for organization at the factory, gave the following information:

“When the worker demanded a vote, the employer gathered all the workers together and started threatening them saying ‘you will say no to the strike or I will fire you all.’ During the voting and decision-making process, our union membership began to decline rapidly. The employer immediately fired 40 to 50 workers who did not deserve severance pay, but who had the potential to join the union. In the end, the “no to strike” came out of the vote.

Legally, this time, the Supreme Arbitration Board was involved in the process. The Board concluded the contract on July 12. Thus, a collective agreement was concluded until the end of 2024. With the contract, the salary of unionized workers, which is the minimum wage, increased between 40 and 50 percent. The Supreme Arbitrator’s decision was sent to the parties on August 4. In this process, the number of our members decreased to 20. When the contract arrived, our number increased to 40.

We, as a union, inform the employer of the names of the workers who will benefit from the collective agreement. The employer, who knew their names, first forced 13 workers who arrived on the night shift on August 23 to leave the union and fired all of them when they did not want it.

He fired 16 union workers who showed up for the next day’s shift using the same method. Our workers, who did not sign the notices, continued their work waiting in front of the factory. Currently, production continues to bring in workers from outside instead of unionized workers.”

DID NOT SHOW THE DOG THE COURAGE

President Şahin Kaya stated that, in addition to meat, contract productions are also carried out from time to time for different companies and that they received complaints that hygiene regulations were not followed during production.

Kaya stated that Boss Derawan does not show his workers the same affection that he shows his dog: “Derawan often walks around the factory with his dog. One day when it was raining, he brought the umbrella to his dog. He hurt all of us that he withheld the compassion he showed his dog from the workers.”

Kaya said Derawan frequently spoke on panels on democracy and human rights, adding that the company was preparing to set up a new factory in Manisa with state support.