Page 276 - KAZOVA - ENGLISH
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What is important here is this: the laws for trade unions are
constructed so that henceforth the authority of trade union or-
ganisations is derived from the bosses. They are forced to seek per-
mission from the bosses before being able to use their authority
as organisations of the workers. On the contrary, bosses can arbi-
trarily cancel the authority of trade union officials by pressing
charges and these officials are not able to use their authority while
legal proceedings are under way. For this reason, BELTAS workers
are not able to function as trade unionists. The obstructions to
trade unions have been removed, limitations in their competence
have been removed, they have areas of competence but because
the mayor’s office pressed charges they are unable to make use of
their authority. Moreover, this is a mayor’s office belonging to the
CHP (translator’s note: supposedly a left-wing party). We suppose
that this mayor did not listen to CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu!
Kilicdaroglu had made a call for organisation in trade unions. He
had said get organised. It means the mayor was not listening! But
of course he was. This is the CHP’s real face. They are the ones
who send police and rapid reaction police to attack workers. They
even seek help from the AKP’s courts to obstruct trade unions.
They also get the AKP’s police to attack workers. But since the
CHP is not our main subject here we just mention this in paren-
theses. What we wanted to stress is that even when all legal objec-
tions are overcome, you are still not able to engage in trade union
organisation. You cannot use your authority as a trade union. Even
this depends on the permission of the boss. It does not matter
whether or not the bosses’ charges are found to be justified or not.
Even if they are found to be in the wrong, you still have to pay the
other side’s expenses and attorney expenses. As much as that. But
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