Appeal For Support For Reinstatement of 305 Turkish Airline Workers-A Threat To All Transportation Workers

Appeal For Support For Reinstatement of 305 Turkish Airline Workers-A Threat To All Transportation Workers

We are writing this letter to build a solidarity movement  in our demand  that the board of Turkish Airlines  reinstate the 305 Turkish Airlines workers who had been fired for taking strike action.
Here’s the summary of what has happened at publicly owned Turkish Airlines:
Using their  majority in  parliament, the government party had introduced  a law, being the first experience in the world which bans the right of strike in the aviation sector. It followed the reaction of workers and public against these anti-democratic laws. However, instead of organizing a strong organized opposition which could be done even by a little effort, Hava-İş, the only union existing in the aviation sector, the union chose to demand their members not to go their job by texting to their cell phones just a night before. By following the union’s call, there have been cabin crews not going to their work by an excuse of being sick, justified with the official medical certificates. Thus, starting from the morning of 29 May, there have been several delays and around 130 cancellations happened in the Turkish Airlines flights due to the lack of crew.  
However, the union Hava-İş, failed to undertake this correct reaction and literally forebear from the responsibility by declaring “this strike is not a decision of our union, the workers are not going to their work by acting in their own initiative!” Since, on the text that the union had sent to their members’ cell phones, it was already written that “ our members had declared that they do not feel themselves ready to work”. This attitude of the union together with the employer’s announcement of dismissal for the ones who had taken the medical certificate led the flights started around noon.  As a result, without a compensation, the employer fired 260 cabin crew and 45 technicians randomly being chosen from the ones whom had taken the medical certificate or others that gathered on the airport supporting the action that  happened on 29th of May
Whereas, just as the admission of Metin Külünk, the member of the parliament that had proposed the no-strike clause, the board  of Turkish Airlines is the one itself that had started all these by ordering this unjust law. Furthermore, the workers had been informed about their dismissals in a similar unjust way,  receiving text to their cell phones. After all this happened, the Turkish Airlines board had announced the salaries of their own workers, targeting them in a  public campaign committing another offence!
 It is obvious that, through the government party AKP, this attempt in banning the right of strike will not take place only in the aviation, but also will expand to other sectors of transportation and eventually all branches of business. Thus, all workers are on the target, as well as the aviation workers. For this reason, what unions should do is to organize a united resistance against this threat. However instead, Hava-İş put some few cabin crews forth with doing a 'political show', and thus laid the groundwork for the dismissal of 305 workers. For that reason, the reliance of workers in their own union was completely undermined. So unfortunately we cannot talk about any success of the union. The truth is, although workers go to the  airport to continue their 'resistance', the workers are no longer believe that this will be successful.

We, the ones who have suffered unfairly, being fired and having not  been protected by the union, came together and created the "29 May Solidarity" in order to resist against all of these a action and to fight to  get our jobs back. Our lawyer friends will be taking care for the legal process of reinstatements without demanding any amount of money. We have our labor in, which has built Turkish Airlines Company at this point. We did not commit any kind of offence under the laws. So, we will keep on educating people and workers about the huge injustice that we have encountered.
We will be looking for your solidarity for our right struggle.   
THY 29 May Solidarity
web page : http://www.29mayisbirligi.com/
email  :  29mayisbirligi@gmail.com