IWSN’s Solidarity Message to Arçelik LG’s Sacked Workers

The Arçelik LG factory in Gebze produces air conditioning units. It is a joint venture between Koç Holdings, the biggest capitalist conglomerate in Turkey, and South Korea’s LG. The workers of Arçelik LG have been heavily involved in the struggles of the Turkish metal workers for genuine and independent trade unions. The following is IWSN’S solidarity message to the sacked workers of Arçelik LG.

To the sacked workers of Arçelik LG in Gebze

Our dear class brothers and sisters,

We heard about your recent heroic struggles against Türk Metal, LG management and the state through the comrades of UID-DER.

We have been heartened by your month-long picket and the four-day occupation of the factory – reclaiming or recovering it for the working class. This is a very impressive step in the metal workers’ fight against the many-sided attack of the capitalists: the gangsters of Türk Metal, the biggest capitalists of Turkey, the Metal Industrialists’ Union (MESS), the police and the courts.

Time and time again we have seen that the section of capitalists represented by the AKP is ready to amend the constitution and structures put in place by the generals after September 1980 – but only when its interests are curtailed. Yet no serious steps have been taken to unshackle the trade unions or even to ensure that workers’ rights recognised by the constitution are not denied in reality by the police, the courts and other state structures.

We hope that the mass resignations from Türk Metal continue and develop into a movement for building a genuine metal workers’ union, run by the workers to defend jobs, pay and conditions. The activity of such a union would be a valuable experience for Turkish workers in all industries and workers in many other countries.

Just as the capitalists of LG, Renault, Tofaş (Fiat) and so on are operating internationally, the workers must also fight them internationally. International solidarity is the key to beating them in Turkey, South Korea, France, Italy, Iran and beyond.

Long live international working class solidarity!

Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network (IWSN)