Labour Service
The Şık Makas/Cross Jeans workers, members of BİRTEK-SEN who were unlawfully dismissed after launching an action for their unpaid wages, came together yesterday at the Bread and Justice Rally.
At the rally held in Cumhuriyet Square the workers voiced their legitimate demands once again. SOL Parti, CHP, Emek Partisi, many democratic mass organisations and residents also joined the rally organised by the United Textile, Weaving and Leather Workers’ Union (BİRTEK-SEN), the Confederation of Public Employees’ Trade Unions (KESK) and the Confederation of Public Employees’ Unions (Birleşik Kamu-İş). CHP Deputy Chair Gamze Taşcıer and EMEP İstanbul MP İskender Bayhan were also there.
The Şık Makas workers gathered at 14.30 in front of the Public Library next to Namık Kemal Middle School for the rally. From the front of the library the workers marched to Cumhuriyet Square where the rally would take place. They walked into the square chanting “Şık Makas worker is not a slave” and “Work, bread, freedom”.
THE STRUGGLE FOR A DECENT LIFE
BİRTEK-SEN General Chair Mehmet Türkmen spoke at the rally. Türkmen pointed out that almost every family in Tokat works at Şık Makas and said: “From the first day we always said one thing, we said that the struggle of the Şık Makas workers is not only the struggle of the workers who work here but the struggle of all the people of Tokat. We said this because someone from every family in Tokat has surely worked there been wronged been dismissed lost their job… Almost every family has lived through these. This is why I underline once again the struggle being waged is the struggle of all Tokat workers and labourers.”
The mother of Buse Kara the BİRTEK-SEN Workers’ Representative under house arrest was also there.
Şık Makas workers who spoke at the rally said the struggle is not limited to their own factory and addressed the people of Tokat as follows: “This struggle is not only the struggle of the Şık Makas workers it is the struggle of all labourers. We want our rights we will not let those who want to seize our bread and our rights pass.” Workers who have not received wages for months who were dismissed with unfair codes and had their severance pay seized described the process they are going through by saying “We are fighting for a decent life”. They said that on one side stands the boss who grows with incentives and invests in different cities and abroad and on the other side are “workers who cannot buy school supplies for their children cannot pay the rent and live in debt”.
WE WILL WIN BY UNITING
The workers said that Öz İplik-İş Union which has been authorised for years left them halfway and said: “The Öz İplik-İş representative told us ‘the boss is strong our strength is not enough for him’. Before we even received our wages they tried to force us back to work. They threw at us slanders that even the boss didn’t say. They attacked the workers assaulted a woman worker. Is this trade unionism?”
LEFT Party Spokesperson İlknur Başer also spoke at the rally. Başer said: “I salute the resistance of the Şık Makas workers who are chasing the value of their labour on behalf of LEFT Party. The Şık Makas workers will win. There is no other way the resistance will surely win. As someone who comes from the trade union movement and follows in the footsteps of the labourers who write history I say that those who rise up for their labour their sweat their justice their bread will win. We will win with our unity. This has been the case since the founding process of the unions. It will be so again.
They are afraid of workers uniting standing up. Because if the labourers who unite for their labour their bread stand up their order their reign will end. Then these wheels will not turn for a handful of capitalists for two or three people. These wheels will turn for the Turkey of labour. If the workers the labourers stand up they will build a country where the word the authority and the decision belong to the labourers. We will unite and we will end this reign.”
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Tokatlı yurttaşlar işçilerle yürüdü, published in BirGün newspaper on November 17, 2025.
