The march from Galatasaray highschool to Taksim Square which was organized by UPS
workers and football fan groups was very enthusiastic. Besides families of the workers, fan
groups Forza Livorno, FenerbahCHE, Tek yumruk Galatasaray, Halkın Takımı Beşiktaş,
Altay YSKA, İstanbul Tayfası, Sakaryaspor Fans, Beleştepe Beşiktaş, İnadına Bursaspor and
Boranlar Kartalspor participated in the march and the press declaration. Also, trade unions,
democratic mass organizations and political parties supported our march.
During the march to which almost 2000 people attended, ‘Long live class solidarity’, ‘UPS
workers are not alone’, ‘The union will enter UPS, there is no way else’, ‘Our union right
cannot be obstructed’, ‘We will win by resisting’ were chanted.
In the press declaration in Taksim Square which was followed by a lot of press members,
our “Today is the 165th day of the resistance of UPS workers who were fired because of
being members of our union and using their right of organizing. Today we combine the
voices of football and the resistance: we had a march with the support of fan groups, trade
unions, political parties, democratic mass organizations, and chambers. In the picket lines in
Izmir and Istanbul, the struggle of 162 workers in order to be reinstated is continuing. The
employers, with whom we negotiated for a solution, have not taken any concrete steps yet.
While the employers are violating the laws, the Prime minister says that everybody have the
right to be members of two unions. However, UPS workers were fired because of being a
member of only one union. Not only UPS workers, as shown in the reports of Türk-İş, but
also tens of thousands of workers have been fired because of being union members during
the governments of AKP. Democracy cannot be mentioned in a country in which there is no
right for workers. The employer of UPS, know no bound in acting arbitrarily by leaning on
the anti-democratic laws in our country, do not tolerate the union, sees nothing wrong with
putting the union-member workers out. We are asking to the Prime minister and the Minister
of Labour: Why do you keep quiet about the union-hostility of the employer of UPS? How
much more will you condone the employers violating workers’ rights which appear in laws
and the constitution?
Workers are under threat not only in UPS but also in all sectors: Hava-İş members, who were
fired from THY (Turkish Airlines), İGDAŞ workers under attack of privatization, Çizmeli
Food Company workers who were fired because of being members of Tek Gıda İş are the
recent examples. Since the roots of these attacks are same, it is necessary to unite small and
large struggles in order to protect our jobs and our bread. The struggle of our union is not
only the struggle of UPS workers but it is also the struggle of all unsecured workers. Our
struggle for being reinstated is going on by growing. In the last weekend, on October 9-10,
unions from Europe and officials from ITF came to Istanbul for a solidarity action. European
unions decided to strengthen the struggle against UPS employer by the inspiration of the
UPS workers’ resistance and by the influence of the difficulty of life and work conditions of
them. We demand from unions, chambers and labour organizations to strengthen solidarity in
national level. In the period of school season and forthcoming winter, we call the employer
one more time to leave this inhumane attitude and take a step to solve the problem urgently.
UPS workers will continue struggling to the end and will never comply. We thank to
everybody for coming here today and supporting us. Long live the struggle of UPS workers,
long live class solidarity.” said Kenan Öztürk – President of TÜMTİS.
Yılmaz, the spokesman of a fan group, Halkın Takımı Beşiktaş, said that they united the
struggle against industrial football and the honourable resistance of UPS workers. On behalf
of Galatasaray Tek Yumruk, Fatih stated that labour creates all of the colours and they, as
fans, will always be on the side of labour. Özgür, the spokesman of Sakaryaspor, said that
football has a social side and it is a device of building social relations, and emphasized that
they believe in the solidarity of people who struggle against injustice. Metin Kurt from
The Union of Sports Workers said that sports workers are together with UPS workers. Faik
Pala, the soloist of the music band Mavi Göç, the supporters of Trabzonspor football team,
reminded that the people who struggle do not always win but the winners could only win by
struggling.
We thank to all friends for supporting UPS workers’ struggle and participating in the press
declaration and the march.
