Labor advocacy group laments disarray among Turkish unions

“The project has tested everyone’s patience,” declared Jeff Bridgeford, special adviser with the ETUC, last week in a private gathering at the Austrian Embassy residence. Yet he was persistent, as many are in the headquarters in Brussels, to keep the project going. “We had many opportunities to stop. We kept pushing forward nevertheless,” Bridgeford said.

“Civil Society Dialogue: bringing together workers from Turkey and the EU through a shared culture” is the name of the European project, which was financed by the EU with a total budget of 1,250,000 euros. The money was provided within the framework of pre-accession financial assistance for Turkey. The sheer size of the project, the first involving Turkey, proved to be more difficult than was originally thought, forcing project coordinators to ask for an extension on top of the original 22 months. The project, launched in October 2008, will have a revised deadline now slated for May.

The ETUC’s members include four major Turkish labor organizations, namely the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions (DİSK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Confederation of Turkish Real Trade Unions (Hak-İş) and Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş). They have worked together with 17 European trade union confederations, all of which are members of the ETUC, and seven European industry-based federations.

Disagreements among Turkish labor unions, however, have stalled the project, and some members dropped out completely, at the bewilderment of project coordinators on the European side. “It is very difficult to work with you if you cannot work out your differences with each other,” lamented Marcus Strohmeier, who is involved with the project’s education and training seminars. He represents the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) and works with the Department of Education, Leisure and Culture within the ÖGB in Vienna.

Still the project was hailed as a success both from the European and Turkish sides. “It was the first encounter for many European workers and Turkish workers who attended seminars held both in Turkey and Europe. The project included a range of activities designed to help Turkish and European workers interact with each other,” Bridgeford said. “I am relatively optimistic. I have learned what is required and what is acceptable here,” he added.

Endorsing Turkey’s bid for the EU

Bridgeford also underlined that the ETUC, by far the largest organization representing labor interests throughout Europe, supports Turkey’s EU candidacy. The endorsement comes with strings attached, however. “Turkey should have laws in line with the International Labor Organization [ILO] and EU norms,” he emphasized.

The current laws regulating unions and collective bargaining have been a source of criticism from the EU and the ILO for lacking conformity with universal standards. “First of all, the state has too much power to intervene in the work of unions,” Bridgeford complained, adding that the legal system is antagonistic toward strikers in many ways. He also asked about doing away with certain requirements in establishing unions. Currently for unions to be accepted as legitimate representatives of workers, they need to meet at least 50 percent plus one membership criteria in one business as well as satisfying the 10 percent threshold membership benchmark industry wide.

With the help of unions, the government prepared a new bill addressing many of these complaints. But the law was never referred to the floor of Parliament for a vote. Turkey needs to adopt reform laws to bring the country in line with EU standards as was required for the opening of Chapter 19 in the course of EU negotiations. Turkey was able to open only 14 chapters out of 35 required to be completed before the country is able to become a member of the union. Most chapters are frozen for political reasons in addition to veto power exercised by the Greek Cypriots.

Chapter 19 deals with labor laws and calls for a national action plan for employment. Bridgeford maintains that becoming a union member in Turkey is a courageous act. Any union member needs to officially certify his/her membership through a notarized agency. “Once you become a member, your information is automatically forwarded to your employer,” he complained, stressing that the verification process should be done through independent agencies like in Europe. “The public sector should also be given the right to strike and to collective bargaining,” Bridgeford added.

Unions to resolve their differences

Strohmeier believes that internal fighting and disagreements among Turkish labor unions are weakening the labor rights movement. Drawing an analogy with Polish and Bulgarian examples where intense disagreements were dropped on the eve of EU memberships, he said Turkish unions should replicate these examples. “Unions get weaker if they cannot agree on a common cause,” Strohmeier underlined.