At Yves Rocher's, just work and shut up!

In Gebze, the industrial district that borders Istanbul, the Kosan Kozmetik factory produces cosmetics under the Flormar brand, acquired in 2012 by the Rocher Group. The factory refuses to have unions. Yet the Rocher Group, the French cosmetics giant, better known as Yves Rocher, calls itself “an inclusive and open company”, committed to “fighting all forms of discrimination”. However, it does not appear to be fighting trade union discrimination, at least not everywhere.

THE ORIGINS OF THE STRUGGLE

After experiencing strong economic growth, Turkey has been facing high inflation since the beginning of 2018. “Prices go up every week. It’s become difficult for people,” says one of the striking workers.

Another employee, a team leader, explains: “We haven’t had a single pay rise in 15 years. And yet since our factory was sold to Yves Rocher, our company has grown and new stores have opened.”

In order to finally obtain an increase in their salary, which currently stands at around 1,600 Turkish lira per month (roughly €230), a majority of workers agreed to join the Petrol-İş union, which launched a registration campaign in the company in January. Until then, there was no union in the company, but Petrol-İş quickly signed up the number of members necessary for its representativeness to be recognised by the Ministry of Labour and for it to be able to enter into collective bargaining.

INTIMIDATION

When it learned of the first union memberships, management dismissed about twenty people.

Pinar Koca, who was among the first to be dismissed, shares her story: “I joined the union on March 21, and they fired me on March 23. The reason they gave for my dismissal was ‘weak performance’. Did it take them eight years to decide my performance was ‘weak’?”

Management reacted to the determination of the laid-off employees, who were staging demonstrations outside the factory, with more intimidation tactics, notably forcing employees to resign:

“During the tea break, I was clapping my fellow workers outside to show my support. When I went back in, I was taken to the conference room. There, they said: either you agree to work in production or you resign. But I normally hold an office job, so I had to give in my notice.”

€230 per month is the average salary in the Kosan Kozmetik factory in Turkey.

STRONG LOCAL MOBILISATION

For the past six months, the employees who have been unjustly deprived of their jobs have been demonstrating outside the factory, despite regular raids by the police, which turn off the music and confiscate the banners.

At the same time, the union brought an action before the courts to obtain the opening of negotiations and ask for the workers’ reinstatement.

For Süleyman Akyüz, the president of Petrol-İş, “the challenge of this fight now extends beyond the scope of the company: if we succeed in setting up a trade union organisation, we open the way for other companies.” The Gebze industrial estate has thousands of workers and all eyes are riveted on the picket line.

For their demands to be successful, workers need support today.