Report on Working-Class Protests in 2017: Almost 2000 Workers Fighting for Their Rights Lost Their Jobs

Labor Studies Group (LSG) was established as a result of a series of meetings of academics, researchers, and trade union experts in order to work in coordination. They have been publishing their report on working-class protests since 2015. Here are some highlights from 2017’s report prepared with the support of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s Turkey Office: […]

Labor Studies Group (LSG) was established as a result of a series of meetings of academics, researchers, and trade union experts in order to work in coordination. They have been publishing their report on working-class protests since 2015.

Here are some highlights from 2017’s report prepared with the support of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s Turkey Office:

Almost 2000 workers were dismissed

-894 were dismissed by their employers because of participating in struggles for their rights.

-At least 663 workers were dismissed because of participating in unionization struggles.

-Approximately 77 thousand workers participated in 430 work-place based protests, 144 general protests and 33 solidarity protests.

– %44 of these cases involved workers employed in the private sector.

– %64 of workplace-based protests were press conferences, %23 of them were non-legal strikes, %11 of them were permanent picket lines.

– Women’s participation in the protests declined to 29% in 2017.

“Production stopped or slowed down in one of every three protests”

-24% of work-based protests were due to collective labor agreement, 21% due to dismissals, 14% due to pay usurpation, and 14% due to dismissals by decree-laws.

-Production stopped or slowed down in one of every three protests.

-76% of the cases involved subcontract workers in the private sector. 19% of the cases involved subcontract workers in the public sector.

1894 workers were dismissed due to struggling for their rights

– 1894 workers were dismissed by their employers because of participating in organizing campaigns which included an action covered by the press in 2017. 663 workers were dismissed because of getting involved in struggles for their rights. 1231 workers were dismissed due to unionization.

-23% of the cases belong to the metals sector.

–When we look at the number of workplace-based protests organized by trade unions; DİSK Birleşik-Metal İş is the most active trade union with 41 cases, Türk Metal is the second most active trade union with 39 cases, Eğitim Sen is the third trade union with 35 cases.

–As well as work-based protests, there were 177 general protests.

– 17% of the general protests were due to work safety and work-place killings, 8% were due to legal regulations on severance pay.

–Not any information of an intervention was found in 84% of the cases.

– 77 interventions were found in 430 work-based protests. 21% of it was done by the police with violence, 6% was done by postponing stoppage, and 3% was due to governor’s decision.

– 24% of the cases were in İstanbul, 18% were in İzmir and 11% were in Kocaeli.