Eight workers were hospitalized on Monday after police clashed with protesters outside a factory in Istanbul, where employees have been demonstrating for nearly two months, the Birgün daily reported on Tuesday.
The confrontation occurred when 146 workers who were laid off after joining a union blocked a bus transporting replacement workers to the Polonez factory. The workers were protesting the company’s hiring of temporary labor in violation of Turkey’s labor laws.
The police, who were protecting the Jordanian-owned company, responded with threats and force, causing two women to faint and sending eight workers to the hospital. Seven were discharged later that day, while one remained under medical care.
In a video shared on X, Çatalca Police Chief Ali Osman Turhan was heard threatening the protesters, telling them, “If I arrest you and start legal proceedings, your children, even if they are smart, will never find a job.”
Yunus Durdu, a representative of the food-sector Tekgıda-İş union, condemned the violence, questioning why authorities were defending a company fined by the Ministry of Labor for union violations. “Why is the police force beating workers who are just exercising their rights while protecting a foreign company that disregards our laws?” Durdu said.
The company, Durdu added, continues to violate labor codes by hiring temporary workers instead of rehiring those laid off. “The employer blatantly breaks the law, while workers seeking their rights are criminalized,” he said.
This is the latest in a series of violent incidents, as police have repeatedly intervened in the protest, which began 53 days ago. On August 15, officers reportedly attacked workers staging a press conference outside the company’s headquarters.
Despite the government’s claims of launching investigations, workers say authorities have not supported them in practice.
A yearly report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on labor rights reveals that Turkey is one of the 10 worst countries in the world for working people. According to the Brussels-based ITUC, workers’ freedoms and rights continued to be relentlessly denied with police crackdowns on protests in Turkey in 2023.
