Contributed by Ela Gül (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
The Novamed strike in the free trade zone in Antalya was a significant event that shed intense light on working conditions and trade union activities. The female workers were confronted with extreme and often degrading working conditions, including strict controls on their movements and activities, short breaks and penalties for minimal infractions such as being late. The private lives of female workers were strictly monitored, resulting in a heavy burden, including the obligation to request permission to use the toilet. There were unofficial requirements that obliged women to provide logs of their toilet visits or their private lives. They had to justify themselves and record how long they had spent on the toilet. In addition to these working conditions, it was also difficult for the employees because they were not allowed to marry or become pregnant without permission from their superiors, there was a lot of interference in their privacy.
The management propagated that the women had to earn their wages and banned the wearing of masks under the pretext that this could hinder the control of the prevailing ban on speaking. The health risks of working with chemical solutions were therefore particularly serious, leading to loss of voice and other health problems.
Solidarity among those involved was a key aspect of the strike. One union member reported how a female colleague collapsed at work but was denied any support.
Women not only had to struggle with the inhumane working conditions but also had to defend their decisions to their social environment. For example, one female worker was pressured by her fiancé as to why she was taking part in the strike. Parents could not understand why their daughters had claims even though they had a permanent job. Even schoolchildren caused astonishment when they reported about striking mothers The management of Novamed threatened to close the plant in Turkey and relocate it abroad if its employees organized themselves into unions. The formation of trade unions was therefore actively hindered in the free trade zone in which Novamed operated to maintain the exploitation of cheap labor.
The preparations for the strike were characterized by intensive persuasion work, with the women going from house to house to gain support for the PETROL-IS union. The PETROL-IS trade union, which was founded in 1950 and grew in importance during the 1960s, supported the women in the strike because it was a trade union that championed women's concerns. The union is a left-wing and militant trade union that campaigns to improve the working conditions of its workers, especially women workers. It played a major role in the Novamed strike, as it supported the women in their organization and legally. The executive of the PETROL-IS union, who accompanied the women and is often seen in the documentary “Women on Strike”, mentioned in an interview that it was of great importance that the union achieved international and global attention with the strike. The union is a member of the Global Organization (ICEM) and was supported by the organization during the Novamed strike. It took a while for the strike to gain national and international attention. Over time, however, more and more Turkish women's organizations came to show solidarity with the striking women. Until the women's struggle at Novamed GmbH, women's movements had mainly focused on the issue of violence. However, the significant strike also drew attention to women's working conditions.
It is interesting to note that the original aim of the women employees was not to strike, but to negotiate better working conditions. However, the company's intransigence led to a labor dispute, which resulted in strong solidarity among the strikers. Before the strike, the women were forced to work under the pressure of patriarchal structures; during the strike, they experienced freedom and solidarity.
Through the 448-day struggle, the women, together with the PETROL-IS union, achieved a collective agreement with longer vacation days and the abolition of toilet protocols. The obligation to obtain the consent of superiors in the event of pregnancy or marriage was also abolished.
After the strike, 370 female workers work at the company, but only 70 of them are unionized. In the documentary, a member of the union says that the PETROL-IS union has significantly more power than the other unions and could fight for more and better rights if more women joined the union.
After the collective agreement expired in 2009, many women were dismissed and blackmailed into leaving the PETROL-IS union. In 2011, Novamed still had 450 employees, including 420 female workers. Membership of the union had also fallen.
For more information on the strike and the critical role of female workers, see the free documentary "Women on Strike" here: https://de.labournet.tv/video/6072/frauen-im-streik.
Another interesting event that took place a year after the Novamed strike and reflects the importance of women in the history of the Turkish labor movement is the case of Emine Arslan, a textile worker at the Desa leather factory. Together with the textile union DEMI-IS, she pushed for the organization of the company's three large textile factories. After organizing a union meeting, Arslan was dismissed after eight years of employment. The company refused to pay her her last month's wages or her overtime. Emine Arslan was hopeless and decided to sue the company. During the trial, the company offered Emine Arslan 15,000 euros, which she refused. She went on strike for months outside her factory in the Turkish town of Düzce and did not give up until she won her case at the Labor and Social Court. Her fight for her job and her rights attracted attention in Istanbul, whereupon the “Women Solidarity Platform with Desa” was formed and supported Arslan's strike. 75 other female workers joined the strikers, after which 25 workers were dismissed.
In 2019, an interview was conducted with feminist Necla Akgökce, a member of the PETROL-IS trade union. Akgökce was the editor of the PETROL-IS union's women's magazine from 2003 to 2015, making the union movement one of the first to publish a magazine for women and spouses of male union members. The interview shed light on the strike at Flormar, a cosmetics manufacturer in Turkey, which has already lasted a year in 2019. This strike marks another significant labor dispute in Turkey in which women played a central role. The women were protesting against low wages, long working hours and a lack of leave arrangements. Many of the women workers joined the PETROL-IS union and were immediately dismissed as a result. A total of 130 women workers joined and fought for their reinstatement and for the PETROL-IS union to be recognized as a negotiating partner. This case once again illustrates the central role of trade unions in the fight for women's rights in the workplace.
The women's resistance to their working conditions led to them developing a new self-image in the world of work and being recognized as politically active, knew that women workers stood up for their rights and were recognized. This was followed by great support from other left-wing organizations, political parties and other strikers who joined the women and showed solidarity.
Internationally, solidarity was shown through actions by IG Metall and protests in front of the Yves-Rocher headquarters in France. This illustrates the major impact such strikes can have and the extent to which they can influence the working-class community worldwide. In the 2019 interview, Akgökce notes that the AKP government supports an employment policy that puts women at a particular disadvantage in terms of flexible and precarious working conditions. This policy enables better-off AKP voters to employ uninsured domestic workers, which exacerbates the exploitation of women. Akgökce explains that the working conditions at Flormar, such as long working hours and the lack of leave arrangements, are typical of the working environment of many women in Turkey. Repression and attempts at suppression are common during strikes by workers' movements in Turkey. The company management tried to isolate the strikers with threats and violence was used against the protesters once in August 2018. However, the repression was mostly subtle, for example by banning the use of heaters in the strike tent, which led to health problems for the striking women.
Despite the pressure the women were under from their families, they showed a growing political awareness and rose to the challenges posed by the male-dominated trade unions.
Akgökce emphasizes the need to develop long-term feminist structures within the trade unions. She cites SEWA from India as a role model, which has achieved great success as an organization for women's work and has around 1.5 million members. It is emphasized that feminist support is crucial in order to make women's struggles visible and strengthen them in the long term.
The Novamed strike, Emine Arslan's struggle and the strike at the Flormar cosmetics company are symbols of resistance against problematic working conditions and patriarchal structures in Turkey. These events illustrate that significant progress can be made through solidarity and feminist support. Turkey has a certain active reminder culture regarding female workers. The importance of women in the world of work is highlighted on the websites of various trade unions. Various demonstrations and protests by women are also highlighted. The trade unions are therefore committed to preserving these memories and highlighting both historical and current events relating to women.
