A worker dismissed for joining a union is in the national spotlight, writes Nicholas Birchin Istanbul
QUIETLY SPOKEN Emine Arslan does not look the sort of person to kick up a fuss.
But her solitary 150-day sit-in outside an Istanbul factory which supplies leather goods to international brands such as Prada and Mulberry has attracted unprecedented attention to allegations of mistreatment of Turkish workers.
A mother of three from the conservative Black Sea region, Arslan (44) had been working at Desa for eight years when she was sacked on July 1st without back pay or compensation.
The Desa management said she was negligent. Arslan claims her dismissal came just days after she joined a trade union to fight for better working conditions.
"They made us work 60, 70, sometimes even 80-hour weeks for 485 lira [€240] a month", she says. "I had had enough, so I joined up and began encouraging my friends to do so too."
As the bold red slogan on her tunic makes clear, union membership is a constitutional right in Turkey. But it remains a common cause of dismissal.
Some 41 union members have been protesting daily outside the gates of Desa's other factory since they were sacked last May. And a sit-in triggered when one of Turkey's biggest dairy product companies dismissed 500 trade unionists last December is ongoing.
Such mass protests rarely make news in Turkey. But Arslan's solitary vigil has attracted widespread attention.
Her visitors' book contains messages from a German MP and officials from European lobby groups and trade unions in addition to those from well-wishers from all over Turkey.
She has become a figurehead for Turkey's increasingly vocal feminist movement, which turned its attention to the issue of women's workplace rights only recently.
Spurred by the fact that Arslan wears a headscarf, even the Islamist press - which traditionally associates unions with atheistic communism - has covered her protest.
"The fact that Desa is a supplier to international brands gives us an advantage over other similar campaigns," says Nuran Gulenc, an official at Arslan's union.
"Without Emine, though, we could not have got as far as we have. A lone woman protesting for 150 days - that is unheard of."
Last week, the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation joined the debate, branding Desa "the unacceptable face of the leather fashion industry" and calling on its clients to push for improved working conditions.
Efforts to form a coalition, Gulenc adds, have been slowed by unco-operativeness on the part of Prada, Desa's biggest client, and Mulberry.
Both companies deny the allegations and point to an independent audit of the Turkish firm this September that showed no proof of poor working conditions or anti-unionism on the part of management.
"Prada has taken all initiatives to be reasonably sure that all is well at Desa," says Andrea Gaudenzi, a spokesman for the Italian brand.
"We have been working very closely both with other brands and the union and will continue to do so," says Mulberry's supply director, Ian Scott.
But a recent press conference by Desa's chairman raised more questions than it answered. "Union membership is our workers' fundamental right," Melih Celet insisted on November 20th.
Last April, however, Desa workers had taped his son, Burak, Desa's general manager, warning staff that "even if all 701 workers in the factory - including myself - join the union, I will never accept it". Unions says the press conference was a strategic mistake and express optimism that Desa will soon sit down to talks with workers.
Emine Arslan certainly hopes so. Her sit-in has earned her visits to the police station and a fine for squatting on a public byway.
With her case in court, she says she has twice turned down Desa's unofficial offers of compensation - €4,000 in mid-July and €15,000 in October. She intends to continue her protest until Desa re- employs her as a union member.
"I have a responsibility for my friends inside," she says.
"I was the one who encouraged them to seek their rights. I couldn't live with the thought that I was responsible for their being sacked." She looks up at the grey November sky and buries her chin further into her coat. "The colder it gets, the harder I find it."