Turkish police remove workers' politicised' banners at request of cosmetics bosses

Turkish police intervened in the resistance of Flormar cosmetics workers who were fired for unionising, after a demand of Yves Roche subsidiary managers to remove workers' 'politicised' banners
Monday, 06 August 2018 20:18

Turkey’s fired workers from Turkish cosmetics company Flormar face police pressure as they have continued to resist mass dismissals for 82 days. The workers from French Yves Rocher-related company were fired for getting organized around a trade union.

Mustafa Mesut Tekik, a senior secretary from the oil and chemicals workers’ trade union (Petrol-İş), said on July 6 via a Twitter post that the police started to take action against the resisting workers. “They’re trying to remove our banners to end the resistance,” he said, adding that the police took action on the pretext of the workers’ “politicised action”.

Stating that the police took action against the Flormar workers after instructions from high-rank officials of the cosmetics company, Tekik called on the people to contribute to a just solution in favour of the workers.

Talking to soL News, Şivan Kırmızıçiçek, a trade union administrator in the industrial district of Gebze, near İstanbul, where the cosmetics factory is located, said: “We came here in the morning. The undercover police officers came at first. They told us that we should not have hung the banners, which we rejected to do so. Six police cars and riot police came, telling us they were getting prepared for an intervention.” He said that the police pressure came after the requests of the cosmetics company management.

Kırmızıçiçek added that the employers got annoyed of the support of some political parties, women’s organizations and trade unions to the resisting cosmetics workers, which is why they resorted to the police in order to break the resistance.

The Flormar workers' resistance, which has made a tremendous impact in Turkey’s public opinion, pertinaciously continues with a great determination of cosmetics workers, who were fired because of unionising, amid supportive protests and demonstrations.