Women workers at Farplas factory in Kocaeli on strike for trade union rights and wage increases

In view of high inflation and rising living costs with constant wages, workers in Turkey have been taking to the streets since the beginning of the year. Workers have gone on strike at several companies, including the courier service providers Yurtiçi Kargo and Yemeksepeti, the online mail order company Trendyol and the car body supplier Farplas A.S. According to Bülent Duran, human rights representative at the Antep Bar Association, around 10,000 employees in more than thirty companies have walked out in the past three weeks.

The first strike took place four weeks ago at the Farplas automotive supplier in Kocaeli, a factory with 2,000 mostly female employees. The workers demand, among other things, bonus payments, wage increases, no addition of planned work absences to annual vacation, aid allowances due to price increases in Turkey, and an increase in overtime premiums. Workers gave the employer a deadline of one week to answer. At the end of January, there was a large-scale police operation against the striking workers. The police stormed the occupied factory building, used pepper spray and arrested over 200 of the workers. The other workers stopped production.

Even after the police attack, the resistance at Farplas continues. The Feminist Anti-Poverty Uprising Campaign Group paid a solidarity visit to the struggling workers in Kocaeli on Tuesday. The women’s delegation, including HDP deputies Züleyha Gülüm and Oya Ersoy, arrived in front of the factory with a banner reading “We stand by the Farplas workers” and were greeted with applause.

The delegation said: “The Farplas workers are not alone, we stand behind their righteous resistance. We want life, not crumbs.” The women’s campaign demands the reinstatement of laid-off workers and the right to unionize.

Farplas worker Betül Oral thanked the delegation for their solidarity and said: “Your support is especially important for us women. We demand to be able to start work again and we want the employer to answer the demands we put forward through our union.”

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