PARTICIPATING UNIONS OF THE SOLIDARITY WITH UPS WORKERS MEETING IN TURKEY TOOK A DECISION TO STRENGHTEN AND SPREAD SOLIDARITY TO THE WORLD.

After the solidarity visit on October 9, an international solidarity meeting with the
participation of union representatives from Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany,
Austria and regional directors of ITF and ETF was held on 10th of October. In the meeting
which was held in TÜRK-İŞ Regional Representative Office, the process of UPS campaign
was tackled in detail and the further steps of the campaign was discussed.

The first speech was done by Mac Urata, General Secretary of ITF Road Transport Section.
Urata shared the background of the starting process of UPS campaign in Turkey. Urata told
the UPS campaign which was formed as a result of the discussions on strategy in the last
year’s meeting that was held in Turkey with the participation of directors and researchers
of ITF and ETF, and reminded that in 1997, ITF has supported Teamsters union in the USA
in their UPS strikes. After him, Kenan Öztürk gave a brief summary of our union’s history
of organizing and resistance. Especially by taking their attention to the obstacles on union
organizing, the strategies of the employers’ and the legal process, Öztürk enlightened the
foreigner participants about the specific conditions of Turkey, and thank to the sister trade-
unions for their support and called for strengthening the struggle in the future.

In the later period of the meeting, representatives from FNV union of the Netherlands who
came up with their actions in which they piled 40 tons of sand in front of UPS building and
blocked the call centres of the company in Europe, from The Norwegian Transport Workers’
Union who organized protesting actions in front of UPS building and gave their protesting
letters to the management of UPS, from the German union Ver.di, which is organized in UPS,
and from the Austrian union VIDA made speeches and told the solidarity actions that they had
in their countries within The Global Action Day to support UPS workers in Turkey. Roberto
Parillo, President of ETF Road Transport Section and Cristina Tilling, Political Secretary of
ETF Road Transport Section, gave information about what have been done in Europe for UPS
struggle.

In the meeting, some of the fired UPS workers also made speeches. Our members Erol
Senemcan and Olgun Ballıkaya from the picket line in Mahmutbey Transfer Centre,
and Abdülkadir Yıldırım from the picket line in Kurtköy Transfer Centre mentioned the
working conditions in UPS and the process of resistance. They mentioned about the lack
of employment security in UPS, underpayment, very long working hours of the drivers, the
intimidation strategies of the employer, and how they are continuing resisting with the support
of unions despite of all these difficult conditions.

In the afternoon, Molly McGrath, one of the project coordinators of the international ITF-
TÜMTİS campaign in UPS, analysed the strategies of the employer and the union thus far,
and gave considerations for the future.
Lastly, all unions discussed what they can do together in order to sustain solidarity and
reached a common point on spreading the struggle in global level. We are thankful to our
unionist friends who refreshed our belief that a struggle can be win only by international
solidarity, told that they were inspired by our struggle after their visit and encouraged us.