2 July, 2020Following contracts already signed with Bridgestone, Pirelli and Prometeon, IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate Lastik-İş (DİSK) reached a strong collective agreement with the US-based tyre company Goodyear, with matching terms and conditions, on behalf of around 2,000 members.
In Turkish industrial relations, multi-employer collective bargaining negotiations have been in place for decades, particularly in the sectors where there is a strong union movement. The tyre industry is one of them and Lastik-İş negotiates with all the major tyre multinationals.
This time, Goodyear decided to leave the group bargaining between Lastik-İş and the big employers and at the same time demanded lower employment conditions than other companies. The same charter of demands was submitted to all the companies and Lastik-İş finalized negotiations with others, bringing good gains with the approval of rank-and-file membership in line with the union’s democratic tradition.
With the strong presence of Lastik-İş and the clearly powerful potential of eventual strike action, the US-based company accepted the two-year contract on 30 June as applicable from 1 January 2020.
This has ensured that working conditions are the same at all the multinational companies in the sector in Turkey.
Goodyear has two factories in Turkey, in the towns of Kocaeli and Adapazarı.
Lastik-İş has a famous success rate of totally removing precarious temporary employment at the major tyre employers in Turkey. This continues with the new agreement. 300 Goodyear employees were moved by this contract from contractor support worker status to full collective agreement coverage. Goodyear commits to not using any contract labour going forward.
Social benefits are significantly improved with the new collective agreement, by between 20 to 54 per cent, with wages up by a total of 8 per cent on top of inflation. Full production employees see their overall income increased by 8.3 per cent to 12,270 Turkish Lira per month, equal to 1,590 euros.
Alaaddin Sari, general president of Lastik-İş and vice president of the DİSK national centre, addressed the workers and said:
“You have been strong throughout this process; you never gave up. We have made important gains in family health insurance and bonuses, and we have achieved the same framework agreement with Goodyear as with the other tyre employers.”
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan hailed the achievement:
“Goodyear has been concerning us with hostility towards unions in Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey and elsewhere. That context makes this victory by my original union even sweeter.”