On 16th December there will be a worldwide day of action with striking colleagues of the UPS in Istanbul and Izmir. Since 5th May the UPS workers in Turkey are in action and on strike. They fight because they have tried to unionize but were aggressively oppressed and 160 colleagues were layed off for this reason. Poor working conditions and low wages are the causes for their decision to unionize.

The policy of the UPS management is this: wherever possible, lock out unions from their businesses, do it in all countries and by all means. In Turkey, UPS wants to achieve this with police assaults and breach of the law. Even the reactionary Turkish laws, which at least don’t prohibit mere trade union activity, are yet ignored to enforce the UPS goals.

We call on all groups, political parties, labor unions, individuals from around the world to follow the ITF calling. The ITF, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, has already inspired their unions in 154 countries to show solidarity. We call to organize UPS actions or participate in them on the 16th of December.

For a successful struggle in the UPS strike, we need your solidarity: international solidarity and the solidarity of other workers in Turkey. To strengthen this cohesion in Turkey, we want a central meeting of workers and strikers from all the various companies. In this sense, we call on the workers of Turkey to show solidarity with the UPS strikers by discussing and fighting collectivly in this matter, so that the various struggles can be combined programmatically and organizationally.

• For a worldwide UPS action day on the 16th of December!
• Organize and support the actions of our colleagues!
• Boycott UPS, as long as the UPS workers in Turkey are not reemployed and their labor union rights are not recognized!
• For a labor congress in Istanbul!
• Workers in Turkey and worldwide, let’s fight together and decide together!

This is a call by different UPS solidarity committees and supporting groups.