I am the primary union steward of HT Solar, a factory in Istanbul-Turkey that produces solar panels. I am a working woman. We, as women, struggle to develop better our working conditions, and for equal pay for equal work, as well as to have a say in our work places. We are getting organized against the patriarchal capitalist system to put an end to femicide and for a world without violence. As conscious, vanguard and socialist working women we are on the front lines against the capitalist system that disregards our labor with the pretext of the crisis. At the end of last year, for these very reasons, we joined hands with our brothers and occupied our factory. We did not bow down to the bosses. As working women from Turkey we salute the congress you assemble in Argentina. 

Gamze Fırat, primary union steward of HT Solar, Istanbul, Turkey

As the workers of Flormar we became members of a union and for that reason 132 of our friends were fired from their jobs. 80 percent of these are women. Our resistance has been continuing for 107 days. In the meantime we have gone in front of other factories to tell workers there about our situation and asked for their support. We distributed leaflets in front of Flormar stores to raise awareness. Of course our boss was not staying idle. They drew barbed wires in front of the factory to prevent us from seeing the workers, our friends. They moved the shuttle vehicles to the inside of the factory. They said that our sound equipment disturbed them and they made a complaint about it to the governorate. The state supported the bosses of Flormar. They banned our sound equipment and they want to send us away from the door of the factory. 

Flormar is a French based international cosmetics monopoly. We call them from here: we were deprived from our jobs and our bread, because we used our constitutional right and unionized. It is the bosses that are performing illegal acts. As working women of Flormar we see that the legislation is also in the favor of bosses. Flormar Company has an advertising slogan. It goes “Women can do anything if they want to”. Yes, we -as women- can if we want to. We can organize in unions. And we can ask for our rights. We salute the women in Argentina as working women in resistance from Turkey. We wish you success. 

Flormar workers in resistance

Istanbul, Turkey