A Levi Strauss & Co. provider in Turkey has launched into a corrective motion plan to enhance working circumstances at its manufacturing unit within the metropolis of Urfa, a number of months after it got here beneath hearth for allegedly denying its workers the suitable to decide on their very own union and, weeks later, dismissing the a whole bunch who went on strike, albeit with severance for many who certified.
It’s solely after this roadmap has been accomplished that Levi’s will resume “lively” orders, mentioned Muhammed Necmeddin Hocaoğulları, director of human sources and company social accountability at Özak Tekstil, certainly one of Turkey’s largest attire producers.
The Urfa facility, which counts the denim big as its sole buyer, is ending up orders that had been positioned earlier than 470 employees, claiming inhumane work hours, verbal and bodily intimidation and an ineffectual “yellow” union, agitated for the suitable to switch their allegiance from the extra established Öz İplik-İş to the comparatively upstart Birtek-Sen.
Levi’s had investigated the allegations, Hocaoğulları mentioned, leading to “homework” for the producer that included fixing issues with extreme extra time, bettering hygiene and security and addressing the systematic and routine verbal abuse often called mobbing. To “hear worker voice,” Özak Tekstil is putting in a whistle-blower mechanism that has a hotline that pipes “on to headquarters,” he mentioned. A digital model could observe.
“We consider we now have [room] to enhance ourselves and we are going to examine and [take action] if there may be any harassment or pressures which are [not acceptable to us],” mentioned Hocaoğulları, who joined Özak Tekstil in January, a month after the protests started, although he mentioned his appointment had nothing to do with “the scenario” however was half of a bigger restructuring course of. “We’ll take mandatory precautions and managers of the manufacturing unit can be punished if we consider that there’s harassment.”
Hocaoğulları denies that Özak Tekstil had tried to intervene with its workers’ alternative of union. By Turkish regulation, unions should meet sure membership thresholds, similar to representing 1 p.c of employees within the related trade, earlier than they’ve the authority to barter a collective bargaining settlement. Not solely did Birtek-Sen lack the required numbers, he mentioned, however Turkey additionally disallows a number of collective bargaining agreements in the identical enterprise. Öz İplik-İş, an IndustriALL World Union and IndustriALL European Commerce Union affiliate, had already brokered one for the Urfa manufacturing unit, together with one other at a sister facility in Istanbul.
Levi’s confirmed that it has determined to proceed working with Özak Tekstil on a “conditional foundation,” one which’s contingent on the producer’s achievement of a “detailed remediation plan” that tackles freedom of affiliation, working hours and well being and security. The choice was made after a number of months of “partaking to search out options and wanting to make sure there is no such thing as a additional job loss,” a spokesperson mentioned, including that the Purple Tab purveyor has been in frequent contact with manufacturing unit administration to “firmly specific our help for the lawful expression of employees’ voices and employees’ proper to freedom of affiliation.”
However labor rights teams, such because the Employee Rights Consortium, whose forthcoming report about Özak Tekstil concludes that it violated the authorized rights of its Urfa workers and due to this fact Levi’s provider code of conduct, are lower than satisfied.
Responding to Levi’s assertion, Liana Foxvog, the Washington, D.C. watchdog’s director of provide chain methods, mentioned that manufacturing unit administration has “clearly ignored the message” as a result of it has “executed nothing” to “reverse the large violations of employees’ associational rights” that it dedicated. “There was no remediation of the liberty of affiliation violations on the manufacturing unit,” she added. “Not one of the terminated members of the brand new union have been reinstated.”
The Clear Garments Marketing campaign, the garment trade’s largest consortium of commerce unions and employees’ rights organizations, has additionally taken purpose on the jean producer, saying that Levi’s “broke its promise” to make use of its leverage to reinstate the “unlawfully terminated” employees—and if that weren’t doable, to withdraw its orders.
“For a lot of weeks, the model has left pressing letters by the union, and by supporting unions and labor teams around the globe, unanswered,” it wrote in a weblog put up earlier this month. “Within the meantime, the Özak/Kübrateks manufacturing unit in Şanlıurfa, which had solely a small workforce left, has been hiring new employees who usually are not Birtek-Sen members to finish its orders for Levi’s.”
(Özak Tekstil has been transferring its property to Kübrateks, one other subsidiary of its mother or father firm Özak World Holding, for administrative causes, similar to qualifying for presidency incentives, in accordance with Hocaoğulları, and to forged off its “tarnished” title, in accordance with Birtek-Sen.)
The Clear Garments Marketing campaign mentioned that it’s “abundantly clear” that Levi’s is “failing to forestall, mitigate and remediate a really severe occasion of union busting at its quick provider.” As an alternative, it’s propping up Özak Tekstil’s “defiant place by breaking its guarantees to the Birtek-Sen union and persevering with to provide at a manufacturing unit that has actively intimidated, harassed and dismissed employees for exercising their rights.”
Levi’s declined to reply to the claims.
Hocaoğulları mentioned that Özak Tekstil requested hanging employees to return to work, however solely a handful responded. He mentioned that they “didn’t come again to work, didn’t open a lawsuit, didn’t make any complaints” however as an alternative continued to reveal. “Because the administration of the corporate, we consider that it’s simply not a constructive perspective,” he mentioned. “It was similar to a hostile perspective.”
Fulya Pinar Özcan, head of worldwide relations and sustainability at Öz İplik-İş, mentioned that the union has labored to deal with suggestions from the Urfa plant’s remaining 400 workers, together with electing new employee representatives.
“There have been important complaints relating to the earlier store stewards’ effectiveness in conveying employees’ considerations to us,” she mentioned. “Thus, transitioning to elections empowers employees to decide on representatives they belief, making certain higher illustration and accountability.”
Özcan mentioned that the union can be prioritizing “direct engagement” with employees by way of common visits and an ongoing analysis of their wants and considerations. It’ll even be taking “proactive steps” to reinforce communication and collaboration, together with establishing an industrial relations roundtable that may facilitate common discussions between employees, store stewards and infrequently administration, “fostering a extra inclusive and clear decision-making course of.”
“We perceive the significance of stability and safety for employees, and we are going to spare no effort to find one of the best options for the employees’ motion,” she mentioned. “We consider this method will result in higher outcomes for all stakeholders.”
Birtek-Sen has saved most of its ire for Levi’s. Writing on X this month, it mentioned that the San Francisco-headquartered agency has turned its again on Özak Tekstil employees who’ve been “resisting for months for his or her union rights and for humane and dignified residing circumstances” and has colluded with the “Özak boss regardless of all of the stress, threats and insults towards the employees.”
In one other latest assertion, it urged Levi’s to recollect its “worldwide tasks” and take motion to treatment the rights violations of the fired employees. These embrace their reinstatement, the popularity of their proper to decide on a union and the cost of employment wages.
“Whereas it’s apparent that the dismissed employees haven’t been reinstated, the blacklisting of employees continues, lots of them are unemployed and the remainder are condemned to precarious working circumstances,” it mentioned. “We don’t settle for that the model, which is so-called delicate to employees’ rights, ignores this example.”
