Mehmet Türkmen released but the fight for workers’ rights continues
Paul Kershaw, Unite housing workers (LE1111) and National Shop Stewards Network
On 17 March, Turkish trade unionist Mehmet Türkmen was jailed for speaking out about serious workplace health and safety abuses resulting in workers’ deaths and loss of limbs. I was honoured to join an international delegation of trade union observers to attend his trial.
In the trial, Mehmet spoke out in defence of workers; his speech was powerful. He spent 57 days in an overcrowded prison and was subject to ill treatment.
He explained that he was first detained for ‘inciting the public to hatred and hostility,’ but the charge was changed to ‘publicly spreading misleading information’ at the police station. This was a way of silencing him. At no point was evidence given that anything he said was untrue.
Mehmet said the trial was initiated at the request of the factory owner. “I know as well as my name that this investigation was opened upon the complaint of the boss. I have been detained 30 times in the last six years, and every time it was because of a phone call from a boss,” he said.
Pointing to reports from the Health and Safety Labor Watch Assembly, Türkmen noted that at least 555 workers have died in Gaziantep in the last 13 years. “All 555 names are there. Not a single boss served time in prison; not a single boss was detained. Although the textile sector is one of the least risky, why is someone’s hand or arm severed every day? Because the bosses’ greed for profit is more valuable than the worker’s life.”
As he explained in his defence: “For two months, I have been away from my union duties and my family. You are sending a message to the bosses: ‘Exploit as much as you want, we will imprison whoever speaks out.’ This must end; the trust in justice, which is already struggling, should not be shaken further.”
During the trial, one worker held up his hand showing his fingers had been severed. His child had asked how long they would take to grow back.
International delegation
It is good to report that Mehmet was acquitted and free to go back to his work organising workers. The struggle will continue and it is important that we step up our solidarity work with Turkish workers and Mehmet’s union, the United Textil Workers Union (BIRTEK-SEN). The British part of the international delegation – which also included trade unionists and a Left Party MP from Germany – was organised by Solidarity with the People of Turkey, SPOT. I attended as a Unite branch chair and a NSSN representative.
The trial, and the delegation, were widely reported in the London Turkish press and Turkish television news and press.
As SPOT comments: “Türkmen’s release is welcome and long overdue. But the conditions he exposed remain unchanged. Workers in Turkey continue to face dangerous workplaces, anti-union repression, poverty wages, and increasing attacks on democratic rights. International solidarity therefore remains essential.
“Consumers, trade unions, labour rights organisations, and political movements across Europe and beyond must continue demanding accountability from companies profiting from unsafe labour conditions.
“The struggle in Gaziantep is not only a Turkish issue. It is part of a global struggle over who pays the price for the products consumed around the world.
“Mehmet Türkmen is free today because workers and supporters refused to stay silent. The task now is to ensure that the workers risking their lives in Turkey’s factories are no longer silenced either.”
