Nursima Özcan, one of the Migros Esenyurt warehouse workers dismissed for resisting the imposition of poverty wages under the leadership of Warehouse, Port, Shipyard and Seafarers’ Union (DGD-Sen), described the extent of anti-worker practices inside the warehouse. She said an HR manager insulted workers on resistance, telling one of them, “You are a burden, who would ever hire you?”
The resistance launched nationwide by Migros warehouse workers against poverty wages and slave-like working conditions, led by the DGD-Sen, has continued with determination on its 11th day. Workers employed by the subcontractor Us-Grup, who are subjected to exhausting schedules of up to 16 hours a day, have also been fighting the obstruction of their right to choose a union. The final straw came in January, when wages at poverty level were raised by only 28 percent.
Under the leadership of DGD-Sen, workers-initiated work stoppages at Migros warehouses in 12 provinces across the country, including Istanbul. Seeking to defuse the resistance, Migros’ management announced that workers would be taken onto the permanent payroll; however, in return it sought to force them to change their line of work and join the yellow union Tez Koop-Iş. Realizing that management’s sole aim was to sideline DGD-Sen; workers responded by rallying around the union they had chosen and escalating the resistance. After learning via an SMS that they had been dismissed, workers moved their protest to the front of the Istanbul Beykoz villa of Tuncay Özilhan, the honorary chair of Anadolu Group, the owner of Migros, and a former long-time chair of the Turkish Industry and Business Association and its High Advisory Council. Despite the villa being under police protection, workers and union representatives were denied a meeting with Özilhan and were taken into custody with reverse handcuffing and alleged ill-treatment. Despite detentions and obstructions, Migros warehouse workers have continued their resistance around the clock to defend their labor rights. Nursima Özcan spoke to ANF about the ongoing struggle.
I work 14 hours in freezing drafts and cannot feel my legs
Nursima Özcan is one of the workers dismissed via an SMS after joining a work stoppage led by her union, the DGD-Sen, against the imposition of poverty wages. The 26-year-old Özcan has worked for six years at Migros’s Esenyurt warehouse, long known as a stronghold of labor resistance. She said that when she first started the job she carried heavy boxes, and that she now checks incoming goods from trucks and prepares inventories. Özcan said that although her current workload is relatively lighter than that of some other women workers, conditions remain harsh. Özcan said, “We have women colleagues who pull and carry heavy loads with pallet trucks. The boxes start at 20 to 25 kilograms, and almost all of them suffer from either herniated discs or neck injuries. I did that work myself for about two years. Now I work at the mouth of the loading ramp, in extremely cold conditions and constant drafts. I arrive at work at 8:00 in the morning and stay until 10:30 at night because I must work overtime for the money. As a woman, I endure that cold for hours. When I get home in the evening, I cannot feel my legs, and when I lie down, I cannot sleep because of the pain. We are trying to survive under these conditions simply to earn our bread.”
Imagine earning only 34,000 TL a month after 50 hours of overtime
Nursima Özcan said she is a migrant worker in Istanbul and came from Van (Wan) to support her family financially but stressed that her wages are not enough even for herself. She said: “Rents have gone up to 20,000 TL, yet they are imposing only a 28 percent raise on us. What we earn in January and February cannot earn in the following months. Our wages fall back to the minimum wage level. I pay rent, I pay bills, and I have debts. Sometimes I have to cut back on food and basic needs. Despite working this much, I cannot properly feed myself. I survive on what I eat at the warehouse. We normally earn the minimum wage, and even overtime does not make up for it. Imagine this: in December, after working 50 hours of overtime, my monthly wage was only 34,000 TL. This salary covers neither my rent nor my electricity bill. Even colleagues living in basement apartments in Esenyurt are paying 20,000 TL in monthly rent.”
They label us as unskilled workers so they can exploit us more easily
Nursima Özcan said workers are forced to operate under constant pressure and mobbing inside the warehouse and described the situation as follows: “Because I work in the returns section, I am classified as unskilled personnel. Since we are shown as office staff on paper, many of my colleagues are subjected to mobbing. When we are exhausted, when we no longer have the strength to work overtime, or when we react to a warehouse supervisor who treats us badly, we are immediately sent into exile. We are forced to run from one task to another inside the warehouse. When there are no pallets, they send us to the cash area; from there to cleaning, basically, they make us do all kinds of menial tasks. Normally, we should be classified as goods-receiving workers, but because that does not suit their interests, they label us differently so they can exploit us more easily.”
Permanent staff used as union blackmail
Özcan emphasized that workers’ right to choose their own union is being blocked in the warehouse and said that workers are being blackmailed into joining the yellow union Tez Koop-Iş in exchange for being taken onto permanent staff. She pointed out that because workers do not accept this imposition, their line of work is being changed, and they are being forcibly compelled to join Tez Koop-Iş. She said: “They tell us, almost mockingly, that we are not warehouse staff. This is an outright deception. We do not want to join Tez Koop-İş. The owner of the subcontractor company we are tied to, Us-Grup, Veysel Cingöz, is someone who previously served as a deputy chair of Tez Koop-Iş. This union is clearly a boss’s union, and we do not want it. Migros management does not want to grant authority to DGD-Sen, which previously won warehouse workers’ rights through struggle, so it is changing our job classification and making membership in this boss union a condition. Because workers who do not move to Tez Koop-Iş will be deprived of the rights under the collective bargaining agreement. We do not accept this blackmail, this game. We want to be organized in the union we have chosen ourselves.”
HR manager humiliated a worker on resistance
Nursima Özcan said that for 11 days they have been unable to find any interlocutor, from Migros warehouse management up to the company’s owner Tuncay Özilhan. She said that since the resistance began, workers have been subjected to constant pressure and threats from Migros management. Describing the management’s attitude toward workers at the Migros Esenyurt warehouse through an incident involving Human Resources, Özcan said: “The warehouse’s HR manager, Kezban Erol, humiliated a worker who took part in the work stoppage for their rights, saying, ‘You are a burden anyway, who would hire you? Sit where you are.’”
Stand with us, boycott Migros
Özcan stressed that they did not step back in the face of threats from Migros management when they launched the work stoppage and that they would not retreat in the face of dismissals either. She said: “We will continue our resistance until we secure all our rights; we will never accept these slavery conditions. We call on the public to stand with our just resistance by boycotting Migros.”