Blog: UNISON is standing together with our friends in Turkey

When Mehmet Bozgeyik, co-president of KESK (The Confederation of Public Employees’ Trade Unions), addressed our national delegate conference in Brighton last month, he inspired and shocked us all with his vivid and passionate address about the strength he and his comrades have had to maintain in the face of appalling treatment of trade unionists in Turkey. However, this still couldn’t prepare me for my visit to Turkey, and the travesty of justice I witnessed in a court in Ankara. I was there to observe the trial of eight leading members of SES, the public health and social services union, who have been charged with terrorist offences for their legitimate trade union work. Turkey has been an international priority for UNISON since 2015, when the attacks on trade unions intensified. It was therefore an enormous privilege to be able to share the solidarity of our 1.3 million members with SES, particularly as this was my first opportunity as general secretary to travel abroad to visit one of our partner unions. Our eight colleagues were arrested on 25 May 2021, when police raided their homes in the early hours of the morning. Five stand accused of leading a terrorist organisation, while the other three are accused of being members of a terrorist group. The case is important to UNISON, particularly as the attendance of one of the accused – our good friend Gonul Erden – at our national conference in 2018, appears among the allegations of terrorism against her. Gonul was in...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: General secretary's blog News international trade union rights Turkey Source Type: news