The United Textile, Weaving and Leather Workers’ Union (BİRTEK-SEN) released a textile sector report last week under the subeading, “What is happening in textiles? What do employers say, what do workers experience?” The report shows that the textile and ready-to-wear sector has experienced a partial contraction in recent years, with official data indicating the loss of 110,000 jobs over the past three years.
However, the findings also reveal that the crisis is being experienced very differently by workers and employers. While the number of workers has declined, exports, particularly in the eight provinces where the research was conducted, have increased, and employers have multiplied their profits through both exports and state incentives.
Data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) confirms this disparity. According to calculations by the Research Department of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK-AR), based on TÜİK data, the seasonally adjusted broad unemployment figure reached 13,383,000 in June 2025.
Narrowly defined unemployment stood at 3,228,000 in June 2023, 3,253,000 in June 2024, and 3,047,000 in June 2025. While narrow unemployment remained relatively stable, broad unemployment rose sharply over the same period, from 9,151,000 in June 2023 to 11,740,000 in June 2024, and finally to 13,383,000 in June 2025. This reflects a rapidly widening gap between the two measures.
Responding to questions from ANF, BİRTEK-SEN union expert Deniz Kar addressed this crisis, which impacts workers and employers in markedly different ways.
A reflection of a global crisis
Deniz Kar noted that while the COVID-19 pandemic initially brought a temporary boom to Turkey’s textile sector, a global contraction in imports has since triggered a crisis:
“The scale of the crisis is significant, but it has not yet reached the point of a full collapse in employment or mass company closures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains shifted to Turkey. At that time, COVID-19 spread rapidly in countries such as China, Bangladesh, and India, leading to a relocation of supply to Turkey. The real peak in Turkey’s textile exports occurred during the pandemic, but this was only a temporary rise.
Secondly, there has been a decline in imports. In both European countries and the United States, Turkey’s main textile export markets, overall textile imports have fallen. What we are seeing is essentially part of a global problem. Both the pandemic and the general decline in imports in Turkey’s export markets are now reflected in Turkey’s own figures.
In Turkey, employers try to weather this period by declaring bankruptcy or applying for concordat, but often only after liquidating or transferring their assets to relatives or associates. In this way, the majority are attempting to get through the crisis with minimal losses. Of course, there are also businesses that have genuinely closed down and gone bankrupt.”
Employers in the region are exploiting the crisis
Kar stated that the report was prepared based on eight provinces and revealed that, unlike the national trend, exports in these areas have increased, yet employers still use the crisis as a pretext: “We prepared the report based on eight provinces: Antep, Urfa, Batman, Adıyaman, Mardin, Van, Malatya, and Maraş. In all eight of these provinces, exports have increased. In other words, in this region, textile exports are rising in contrast to the overall decline in Turkey.
Yet employers in the region are exploiting the crisis. Here is how: for example, a factory has been opened entirely with ten years of state incentives, everything essentially provided for free. When the incentive period ends, the factory, which in reality is not operating, still appears on paper as if it is functioning. These are the places they declare as bankrupt.
In truth, there is no production there at all. In Urfa, for instance, such factories exist; they are used merely as storage facilities but are officially registered as factories. They continue to benefit from insurance subsidies, machinery support, and land grants.
Once the incentives expire, they invoke the crisis as an excuse. They say, ‘There is already a contraction,’ and shut down. If it is a larger holding, say, with three textile factories, they close the smaller one and expand the larger. If the incentive for the smaller factory has ended, they transfer its workers to the bigger facility.
But then they tell the workers, ‘Because you left here, I will pay you only 30 percent of your severance. If you are not going to work in my factory, you will not even get that 30 percent. Either take it to court or fend for yourself.’ This is the situation from the perspective of employers in the region.”
One worker doing the job of three
Deniz Kar explained that, while the crisis has been turned into yet another opportunity for employers, the picture for workers is entirely different: “Employers spread rumors such as, ‘We are going to move to Egypt, we will transfer the factories to Egypt.’ These rumors are deliberately spread by workplace managers and employers so that workers will accept the worst possible conditions. As a result, if the employer offers to pay 40 or 50 percent of a worker’s severance, the worker is forced to accept. Because the employer can declare bankruptcy, close the factory, or dismiss the worker using certain labor codes. In such cases, the worker leaves 60 to 70 percent of their rightful compensation behind and only receives a small portion. This is another way in which employers exploit the crisis.
From this point on, the crisis begins to directly affect workers. There has been a drop of 300,000 in textile employment. One reason for this is the very high number of uninsured workers in the textile sector. Almost all workshops operate informally, in a ‘basement-style’ illegal manner. Even licensed factories officially register only one or two employees while employing at least 50–60 others without insurance or legal contracts. Across Turkey, there are hundreds of thousands of workers in the textile sector who are employed off the books.
Another factor is that these practices mean the official figures do not reflect the real number of workers in textiles. For example, in Merinos, according to Ministry data, there were 4,700 workers last year; today there are 3,500. Yet the same company continues to build factories and facilities over thousands of square meters, making investments worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Merinos workers say, ‘Before, one person did the work of one person. Last year, one person did the work of two people; now, one person is doing the work of three.’
In other words, they aim to produce more with fewer workers, using the crisis as a pretext. Employers seize or cut workers’ severance pay, block their earned rights, and increase workplace pressures. On top of this, workers are forced to produce far more with far fewer people, and employers profit from it.
In May 2025, a Presidential Decree was issued identifying sectors that would receive priority incentives and support. From weaving to needles, yarn, all machinery and equipment, and every component related to machinery are still covered by the state. Textiles have been designated as a priority and critical sector.
In addition, some of these provinces fall under the Sixth Development Region, where factory incentive periods have already been extended until 2026. In fact, applications for incentives have also been extended until 2026. Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek even made a statement: ‘Last year, we spent 470 billion Turkish liras to support production. Next year, we aim to increase this to 650 billion.’”
There must be a united struggle against this
Deniz Kar stressed that employers turn a profit whether there is a crisis or not, while workers continue to live through the same “hell” in either case, and emphasized the necessity of a united struggle by workers: “When production increases and exports rise, or when production falls and exports decline, employers still take the cream. Especially the big employers take the cream. Workers, whether exports are up or down, continue to live through the same hell. The only way to confront this is through a united struggle against employers. This cannot be achieved by a single union trying to organize textile workers one by one. It must come from workers themselves forming their own teams inside the factories, creating their own committees, and organizing to resist this situation. Because we are talking about millions of workers.
For example, Gaziantep has been a city where there has been constant worker mobilization during minimum wage raise periods for the last four years. Factories have seen mobilizations and workers have taken to protest. This year, petrochemical workers in the Aegean region, metalworkers in the Marmara region or in Istanbul, public sector workers, and municipal workers have been on the streets. In fact, the path for a united front of struggle is opening. Textile workers must do the same. Regardless of industry or sector, they must walk side by side with these workers but to do this, they must first organize within their own factories. This requires uniting under the roof of a union.
In the textile sector, other unions, particularly the three textile unions within the three main confederations are currently negotiating group contracts with employers, yet workers have no knowledge of this. Therefore, these unions are not in a position to walk this path with the workers. Textile workers’ anger toward these unions grows with each passing year. That is why we call on workers to unite under the roof of the BİRTEK-SEN, a union established and run by workers themselves, and to begin organizing starting from their own factories.”