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Union Busting, Turkey - 2023

 

Workers at Özak Tekstil factory protesting in November 2023

Workers at Özak Tekstil factory protesting in November 2023 © CCC

On November 27th 2023, hundreds of workers producing jeans for Levi Strauss in Şanlıurfa, in the southeast of Turkey, went on strike over violations of their right to freedom of association. The strike followed the dismissal of a young woman worker who was an activist in the Unified Textile, Weaving and Leather Workers Union (BİRTEK-SEN). In just a couple months, by mid-December 2023, 600 workers out of a workforce of 768 at the factory owned by the large conglomerate Özak Global had signed up to join BİRTEK-SEN. 

BİRTEK-SEN’s organising efforts were met with threats and intimidation especially targeted at women workers. Instead of respecting workers’ right to form and join the union of their choosing, the union favoured by Özak management called women workers into its office and threatened to tell their husbands and families that they were behaving immorally by joining BİRTEK-SEN. A few days into the peaceful strike, workers called for international solidarity. The Şanlıurfa government sent in the militarized provincial security forces (gendarmerie) – workers were tear-gassed, beaten, pepper-sprayed, and detained.  

As the only buyer in Özak Tekstile factory, Levi’s was in an excellent position to ensure a swift and positive resolution, and both the union and organisations in the CCC network contacted the company. Upon being informed of the case, Levi’s promised to investigate, but meanwhile, Özak management terminated 400 workers who were on strike.

At the end of December, Levi’s told CCC it has “urged a proper remediation with the worker who was wrongfully terminated in November, which is now underway, and firmly expressed [its] support for the lawful expression of workers’ voices and workers’ right to freedom of association.” Levi’s assured it had “communicated to [management] that the termination of workers, which [it] had strongly advised against, is a zero-tolerance violation of [its] Supplier Code of Conduct and called on them to reinstate the workers who were fired.” Levi’s added: “If they do not agree to comply, we will be forced to take the appropriate next steps to uphold workers’ rights, make our position known publicly and protect our business.” Despite this promise, Levi’s would end up doing nothing of the kind.

As CCC learned in June 2024, through a new report published by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent organisation investigating worker rights violations, Levi’s never made good on its promise, and never stopped producing at the factory, despite its earlier communications to different groups involved that it would cease production. All this time, Levi’s could have insisted that the factory management reinstate the dismissed workers but, instead, it allowed Özak Global, which had by now changed all workers’ contracts to its subsidiary Kübrateks, to hire new workers, discriminating against BİRTEK-SEN’s members. Repeated calls to Levi’s were met with no response. Clean Clothes Campaign was informed by BİRTEK-SEN that the factory management told at least 50 of the dismissed workers explicitly they could be rehired only if they would resign from BİRTEK-SEN and no longer participate in its activities.

As outlined in the report, soon after the mass firing, factory management presented workers with a document waiving their rights to reinstatement and union compensation in order to receive their severance, which most of the terminated workers signed out of hardship and desperation. The fact that they signed this document does not eliminate the rightfulness of the BİRTEK-SEN members’ demand for reinstatement and union compensation, nor does it restrict Levi’s ability to insist on these measures in line with the values laid down in its own code of conduct.

Other buyers from Özak Global, which operates several facilities in Turkey, including Hugo Boss and Inditex, were also contacted for support, but to no avail. With this report, these brands now have all the evidence that their supplier continues to be responsible for gross violations, and the failure to address, mitigate, and remedy those violations is a failure also of the brands’ due diligence obligations.

CCC has also been informed that a complaint was filed against Levi’s, Hugo Boss, and Inditex for violation of their obligations under the German supply chain law on 24 May 2024 by the International Union Working Group Cologne (Internationaler gewerkschaftlicher Arbeitskreis Köln, IGAKK) on behalf of BİRTEK-SEN, and is presently under consideration.

(Slightly adapted extract from https://cleanclothes.org/news/2024/levis-denies-justice-to-unlawfully-fired-workers-in-turkiye)

 

Basic Information

Case ID: 2024.006

Identification Number from Open Supply Hub (OS-ID): TR2022292CFAF2F

Open supply hub link

Affected Country: Turkey

Date of occurrence: 2023-11-27

Social Sector Risks concerned:

  • Freedom of association and collective bargaining (Conventions Nr. 11 & 87 & 98 & 135 & 141 & 154; Recommendations Nr. 91 & 143)

Supplier Details

Özak Global
Kazlıçeşme mah. Kennedy Caddesi No:52C

Büyükyalı

İstanbul

34020

Turkey
Phone
+90 212 486 05 05

Supplier Website: https://www.ozakglobal.com/en/

Production Site

Ozak Tekstil Konf. San. ve Tic A.S. - Sanliurfa Branc
1. Organize Sanayi Bölgesi 2. Cad. No: 4

Sanliurfa

Turkey



Total number of workers/employees:
768 workers before dismissals at the end of 2023

Number of female workers:
16% of workers are female 

Workers movement

There are unions active.

Name(s) of union(s) :
BİRTEK-SEN


Öz İplik İş

Source of information about unions:
https://www.workersrights.org

Yes, there is a workers commitee active.

Business Relations

Known Buyer/Brands:

  • Levi Strauss & Co.’s



None of the buyers has the duty to report according to the Supply Chain Act / CSDDD.

Follow up

Known Reaction by Buyer(s):

According to WRC Levi’s acknowledged that the mass firing was a violation (in Levi’s words a “zero tolerance violation”) of Levi’s standards for suppliers and stated it would only continue to place orders with Özak/Kübrateks if the illegally fired workers were reinstated. Levi’s then performed a head-spinning about face, dropping its demand for reinstatement, abandoning the fired workers, ignoring its own labour standards, and rewarding the factory with more business. In it’s first supplier list in 2024 Ozak Tekstil is listed again as a supplier to Levi’s. As a result, there has been no remediation of the violations documented by the WRC.

Follow up-Updates:

In June 2024 CNN published a short video of Özak Tekstil Case, summarizing the events since November 2023: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/25/world/video/scott-mclean-levis-factory-strike-turkey-digvid

Sources

Name of reporting organisation: Workers Rights Consortium (WRC)

The WRC conducts independent, in-depth investigations; issues public reports on factories producing for major brands; and aids workers at these factories in their efforts to end labour abuses and defend their workplace rights.

Source of information about the case:

https://www.workersrights.org/factory-investigation/ozak/

Contributor: SÜDWIND

 

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