All these dismissals in Cargill are contrary to the ILO`s fundamental conventions 87 and 98, which protect workers` right to freedom of association, organisation and collective bargaining. ILO jurisprudence imposes reinstatement as a means of combating anti-union dismissals. Cargill attempted to justify the layoffs for purely economic reasons by stating that the plant should be reduced after the government changed the starch-based sugar allocation quota system. The redundancy decisions indicate that the company sought other positions from Cargill for the laid-off workers, but was unable to rehabilitate them. If the layoffs, as Cargill asserts, were the result of the reduction and had nothing to do with union membership, why did the laid-off workers not offer these new production jobs? Why were undocumented or untrained workers recruited? Cargill`s defence is not credible. Cargill claims to respect freedom of association, but his lawyers have acted to block legal recognition and avoid collective bargaining with Tekg-da-A. 14 workers at the Cargill starch factory in Bursa-Orhangazi were dismissed on 17 April 2018 while trying to start a union. The dismissals came shortly after their union, the affiliate of IUF Tekg-da-A, formally applied for collective agreement status for workers at Cargills 4 food establishments in Turkey, after reaching what the union considered to be the required legal threshold of 40% for the certification of collective agreements of several units. In order to deny certification of collective bargaining, Cargill questioned the union`s request by placing the headquarters workers in the legal bargaining unit, which caused Tekg-da-A`s membership to fall below the 40% threshold. “A week after tekgda-A asked the Ministry of Labour for collective bargaining status at the plant, my department manager and a few other employees told me that we had established a union between the employees and their employer.” Contract with Cargill Value Added Meats, Brampton On July 6, Cargill Value Added Meats employees ratified a four-year contract.
The contract includes about … Articles Many IUF member associations have collective agreements with Cargill. However, at Cargill Turkey, management has made it clear that it does not want a Union; Since 2015, Turkey`s highest courts have issued final rulings that Cargill dismissed workers in retaliation for their trade union activity and affiliation, and ordered their reinstatement. But no workers illegally dismissed in Cargill Turkey has been reinstated because of a legal vacuum: companies can pay for their human rights violations instead of rehiring victims. Cargill`s management defended these measures.
