"Resistance and solidarity grows at Marlboro", 11 October 2022

The resistance started by the workers at the Philip Morris Factory in Torbalı district of İzmir due to the dismissal of approximately 120 workers due to their membership to DİSK Gıda-İş and the exclusion of as many workers from the factory is on its 19th day...

...after the expulsion and then dismissal of 4 workers due to their membership to the DİSK-affiliated Gıda-İş Union, about 20 workers had to resign from their union membership in the face of the pressure and mobbing practices applied in the factory.

In the face of this pressure and dismissals, the workers organised a big meeting and took new decisions...

THE FACTORY TURNED INTO A CLOSED PRISON

In the face of this situation, the boss dismissed 11 more workers...the workers protested...Then mass dismissals began. Over 100 workers were dismissed. Hundreds of them were warned by phone calls and messages from their supervisors not to come to work on the grounds that "production had been stopped in the factory". A significant number of the workers who came to the factory to start work were not allowed in by the security saying "your name is not on the list". Workers inside and outside the factory responded to this situation with resistance.

The toilets of the factory were closed to the workers who resisted inside the factory garden. They were prevented from using electricity and water. Police teams were called to the factory garden and tried to intimidate the workers inside to break the resistance.

In order to cut off the contact between the workers resisting in the factory garden and outside the garden, the factory garden railings were covered with tarpaulins. The height of the railings was doubled in order to prevent unionists from meeting the workers...Some entrances were built overnight with metre-high walls. In order to prevent the union vehicle from approaching the outside of the factory garden, channels were illegally opened outside the garden with construction machinery. The factory was virtually turned into a closed prison. Finally, all the workers who resisted inside were dismissed from their jobs and were forced out by police force.

...the workers have been continuing their resistance for 19 days...