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8th March campaign – ETF visit to Hava-Is, Istanbul-Turkey, 4 March 2005
Erika Young, the ETF Women’s Committee chairperson, and Barbara Ruthmann – ETF Women’s Committee member - visited Turkey to meet with Hava-Is (the Turkish Civil Aviation Union) trade union officials and women working in the industry. Pinar Erol, member of ETF Executive Committee, organised a visit at the Turkish Airlines offices, a meeting with cabin crew members of Turkish Airlines and a meeting with the trade union leadership. Visits at the flight registration office and the computer programming department revealed a tough working environment. The great majority of workforce here are women. Besides the poor quality of working conditions - poor lighting and ventilation, lack of office facilities (workers that had to bring their own chairs from home) – women had very limited possibilities to balance their work and family care responsibilities. The ETF delegation talked with a female manager – mother of three children – who worked up to 12 hours per day, having to be available for on-call work as well. The employees’ canteen used to serve only one meal per day, and solely under the threat with workers’ protest action the management agreed to serve shift meals. Child care facilities were provided by the company – a nursery caring for 60 children - but the place may be soon closed down. Workers plan to organise a demonstration on 8th March to persuade the management to keep the nursery open. The ETF delegation visited a call centre employing 80 women – work is non-stop and employees had to ask permission to leave their workplace even for using the toilet. The call centre was re-located from Ankara to Istanbul and many employees had to choose between moving and leaving their job. Turkish Airlines intends to outsource call centres. Trade union leadership of Hava-Is finally welcomed the ETF Women’s Committee members at their head office. They admitted that, although aviation is a female-predominant sector, women’s rights are poorly defended. The fact that there was no union women’s structure to address women’s issues in the workplace did not make the situation easier. The union leaders welcomed any future ETF support to improve the situation of female workforce in Turkish Airlines.
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