Türkiye: Workers fight union busting in ORGE Furniture

As a retaliatory move, ORGE Furniture unlawfully fired seven (7) members of the BWI-affiliated Turkish Wood and Paper Industry Workers' Union (AGAC-IS) after the union organised the majority of the company’s workers and won official recognition.

In 2022, AGAC-IS successfully organised a furniture company in Aydin called ORGE Grup Yap Mobilya over the course of several months. The union applied for official recognition to the Ministry of Labour after recruiting more than 50 percent of the factory's employees. In February, the Ministry recognised the union's right to start collective bargaining at the workplace.

As a typical union busting tactic in Turkiye, ORGE went to the court to object the labour ministry's authorisation and illegally dismissed union workers who were leading the union organising work. AGAC-IS fought ORGE's appeal and sued it, demanding the reinstatement of the dismissed union members. "This is yet another illustration of how big businesses want to limit workers' rights, notably rights to freedom of organisation and collective bargaining. The fact that this business sends a large number of its goods to European markets under the guise of "the greater concept" seems a little disingenuous. This apparently applies to the company's employees who are not subjected to behaviour that is viewed as inappropriate in many European countries,” according to Coen van der Veer, BWI Global Director for Wood and Forestry and BWI Europe Representative.