Global Union Questions Turkish Government’s Sincerity

December 2011

Global union the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) today questioned whether the Turkish government is abandoning any attempts to live up to its international commitments to respect trade union rights.

ITF general secretary David Cockroft said: “Currently we have the impending results of a court case against members of the ITF-affiliated TÜMTIS union in Ankara; while in the last weeks we have witnessed the lockout of workers at GEA Group; and, perhaps most shockingly of all, the handing down of jail sentences of over six years against 25 members and officials of the Egitim-Sen teachers' union and KESK public workers’ union.”

He continued: “We, along with the international trade union movement, call on prime minister Erdogan to prove that his government is not permitting or authorising a campaign of victimisation of trade unionists and unions – and there is no better way that he can do that by intervening to redress these gross judicial errors.”

ENDS

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