Dockyard Dispute Turns International

Port, Dockyard, Ship Building-Repairs Workers Union (LIMTER-IS) chairman Cem Dinc and the union's training expert Kamber Saygili are being held at Istanbul's Kartal prison following an arrest order issued by the Tuzla Prosecutor's Office subsequent to their detention.

Police placed them under custody on Sunday just before they filed a complaint against a police attack on June 10, Friday, where both Saygili and Dinc were singled out from among a group of union members and beaten by officers.

According to LIMTER-IS Training and Organisation expert Levent Akhan, police pulled the two unionists out of the crowd and "and started hitting them with truncheons".

"Dinc was injured in two places of his head. He had received a doctor's report. He was detained when he went to file a criminal complaint on Sunday. He was then taken to the prosecutor where an arrest was made for resisting the police" Akhan told Bianet earlier this week.

Various international unions, parties and groups are now issuing statements or sending letters to Turkish officials demanding the immediate release of the unionists and for the reason of the industrial dispute at the private DESAN dockyard in Tuzla, unpaid wages and social security contributions of union member workers, to be resolved.

At heart of the dispute is a nearly three month delay in wages to be paid to 55 dockyard workers employed by DESAN's contractor company Montesar. On May 21, the workers launched an "active resistance" demanding their wages and staged a variety of activities to draw attention to their demand. Since then, there have been a series of detentions and scuffles with the police.

According to an executive of Turkey's Revolutionary Worker Unions Confederation (DISK), in one incident early into the action, police injured 3 workers in an attack to break them up and placed 30 others under custody.

But tension reached its peak at the end of May when it was disclosed that at least six workers were seriously injured when police attacked the workers and unionists while they were attempting to read a press statement. Following the incident, 16 people including union executives were placed under custody.

Last week, the workers staged a temporary act of occupying the work premises that led to more tension with the police. The move was hailed as the country's "first dockyard occupation".

International reaction continues

Messages of support to the unionists and protest of their treatment are continuing with the Scottish Dundee Trades Union Council (TUC) writing letters to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Interior Minister and the Minister of Work and Social Security demanding the immediate release of Dinc and Saygili.

According to a report on Ozgur Radyo (Free Radio), The Dundee TUC letters also appealed for the workers party to the dispute to be paid and for an immediate intervention to be made to end the current behaviour of the employer and police force.

The radio said that the Indian Socialist Unity Centre Party (SUCI) and Holland's Organisation for International Solidarity with Unionists (TIE) had also issued statements demanding the unionists' release. The TIE statement was quoted as expressing "astonishment over seeing that it is impossible for unionists and workers in Turkey to conduct a legitimate struggle for their rights".

The International Office of the Organisation of Solidarity with BASK workers ELA Nazioarte issued a separate message it which it said "we would like to express our solidarity with the LIMTER-IS chairman and the education expert. We hope that with the efforts of people all throughout the world we will reach our goals."

Dockyard workers not organised

Following the arrest of the unionists, Turkey's Revolutionary Worker Unions Confederation (DISK) Secretary General Musa Cam told Bianet that approximately 30,000 workers at the Tuzla dockyard were working under very poor conditions without any social security and as part of an "unregistered economy".

"The workers have no kind of organisation while the employers are extremely organised. They are taking every measure to prevent unions from entering the workplace. They have a special solidarity with security forces. We observe that from time to time the security forces use excessive force" Cam explained.

In its written statement on the arrest of its union leaders, LIMTER-IS said "it is evident that this is a conspiracy organised by the bosses of the dockyard to break the resistance. They are trying to silence our union that has been subject to a number of attacks and legal proceedings for defending the rights of dockyard workers."

"No attack will hold the DESAN workers or our union back from our struggle for rights" the statement said. "This attack of arresting them is an attack on all resisting workers and unionists... we invite struggling unions, friends of the classes, to protest the arrest attack and to be a class solidarity with out struggle". (TK/II/YE)