Union members at Turkish Airlines held firm against anti-union legislation and intimidation to arrive at a strike vote, as Kemal Ulker REPORTS

A dispute at Turkish Airlines (THY) has, at the time of writing, brought some 11,500 THY and THY Technical workers, including pilots, cabin crew, technicians and mechanics and other ground staff, to the verge of an indefinite strike. It is the latest in a series of struggles waged by airline workers throughout the world.

Although these disputes have their own peculiarities, in each of them airline workers are confronting an increasingly globally coordinated effort by the carriers to suppress wages and working conditions, increase productivity, and contract out jobs to non-unionised low-cost companies.

Negotiations with THY and THY Technical management started on 16 March, when both categorically refused to discuss many of our basic and indispensable demands regarding workers’ employment conditions. Moreover they failed to disclose their wage rise proposals until the very last meeting in the arbitration process.

THY and THY Technical management have deliberately dragged their feet on these basic issues since March, counting on the protection of our country’s harshly anti-union laws, which do everything possible to delay and prohibit any industrial action.

Serious curbs on the right to strike

In Turkey solidarity strikes, general strikes, go-slows and workplace occupations continue to be banned. Strikes over the non-observance of collective labour agreements are forbidden as well. The right to strike is strictly bound within the collective bargaining process. This means that the union must follow specific steps.

"In their vicious attacks and slanders against our members and our union, THY and THY Technical executives rely on the unstinting support of the mainstream media and political circles"

Collective bargaining must first take place for a maximum of 60 days. An official mediation process then starts for a maximum of 21 days. After the official mediator conveys his report to both sides, the union must wait for another six working days and then decide on a strike. If there is a decision to go ahead with strike action, the employer must be given at least another six working days notice.

In Turkey the law allows the government to suspend a strike for up to 60 days for reasons of national security, health or public safety. Unions can petition the Council of State to lift such a suspension, but if the petition is turned down, binding arbitration can be imposed at the end of this period.

Unfortunately for them, our union, Hava-Is, managed to comply with this deliberately discouraging process, with the strong support of its members.

Derisory offer

Management’s last-minute wage offer was derisory, particularly in light of the company’s record profits this year. Following the post-11 September downturn, THY workers voluntarily accepted a 10 per cent cut in salaries. Since then the company has made a steady profit. Sales increased by 22 per cent in 2006 and net profit by 28 per cent. This year’s first quarter results show that 2007 may be its most profitable year ever.

Hava-Is members are not only concerned about their wages, but also about their working conditions, which are in many cases directly or indirectly linked with flight safety. As a leading member of our union, pilot Atilla Kaya, said during the negotiations, the workload of THY workers is becoming heavier day by day.

“The internationally determined upper limit for the flight personnel’s daily working hours is 14. This is a typical working day for THY personnel. We are working at the limits of international health standards,” he said.

On 20 July, THY and THY Technical workers gave notice of their intent to take indefinite strike action. The decision came after a two-week deadline set by our union expired without any agreement in negotiations. Both company and management’s intransigence on certain issues was unprecedented and proved that they had no intention of settling the issue. As a result, the union was forced to issue a two-week ultimatum.

Bullying

With the collapse of negotiations THY and THY Technical management started to employ bullying tactics. THY Technical management publicly voiced the threat of contract termination for more than 1,000 employees. In a parallel move, they even said that THY Technical would be shut down.

On 23 July things took a serious turn for the worse, when three Hava-Is officials were taken into custody for several hours while going about their lawful union business. The ITF immediately contacted the Turkish prime minister and the chairman of the board of directors of THY to protest. However, police went on to take Hava-Is officials into custody several more times, with the acquiescence of THY and THY Technical management.

On 24 July THY management announced a lockout after a meeting with our representatives. During the discussions, management refused to give ground on employment conditions, offering only a small concession on pay.

In addition it began attempting to force employees to sign a petition for a vote on strike action. On 23 July, the union began legal action against management in a bid to challenge the illegal petition.

According to the current legal framework every worker has the right to petition for a strike vote – that is their democratic decision – but it must be by their own free will. According to the law an employer can’t start a strike vote drive, let alone pressurise employees to sign the petition by threatening them. Some of our members have signed petitions claiming that THY managers have pushed them for a collective signing in the meeting rooms.

However, we were quite confident that even if they were able to collect the signatures of 25 per cent of all workers, the result of the ballot would be a “yes” vote. Time proved us right.

Basic demands

By definition, wages are a sine qua non part of the agreement, while the administrative clauses regarding working conditions are as important as the wages. The major source of disagreement between our union and the THY and THY Technical management are the administrative clauses.

For instance, in both companies personnel are working in double or triple shifts and are paid overtime premiums. However, these amounts are very small and do not offset their attrition.

The “multiple-jobs-per-worker” policy of both companies, which means employing a worker in more than one position, is another major reason for dispute. A worker who is responsible for the safety of the cabins is also doing the cleaning. This burden is increasing day by day; while at the same time financial and social benefits have been changing for the worse.

Disparity between wages for workers who start work in the same position at the same time is a major problem attributable to the political and populist policies of the companies’ managements. Hava-Is is determined to develop a standard, but the airline rejects this demand in order to retain its ability to divide and rule.

On 9 August THY and THY Technical workers voted to take unlimited strike action in pursuit of their campaign for better working conditions and higher wages. Some 54 per cent of THY workers and 57 per cent of THY Technical workers voted in favour of a strike. As more than 1,200 non-union member employees (these are middle managers who are not union members due to Turkey’s restrictive legal framework) voted “no” en bloc, the real percentage of yes votes amounts to more than 61 per cent of THY workers.

This result is notable as it came in the midst of a concerted campaign against the workers and our union by business and political circles, as well as large sections of the press.

Immediately after the publication of the results of the strike ballot, the THY board of directors chairman, Candan Karlitekin, made a statement to the press in which he repeated his threats against THY and THY Technical workers and our union.

In their vicious attacks and slanders against our members and our union, THY and THY Technical executives rely on the unstinting support of the mainstream media and political circles. In fact, nowadays they are bribing the media with advertising revenues. One of every three TV adverts belongs to THY!

A sort of united front has developed against us, declaring that our entirely justified wage claims are “crazy” and that the union has “enticed” its members into an “ideological” campaign to “go on strike for the sake of going on strike” in a completely unacceptable manner. In fact Karlitekin is well aware that this is not the case.

He is not the only one guilty of such distortions. During the strike ballot process the management team of both companies engaged in lawless practices against workers and the union by resorting to threats and other sorts of bullying tactics. Yet against all this, our membership remained resolute and determined to vote for strike action.

Kemal Ulker is education officer of Hava-Is.