Turkey: IUF-affiliate signs first collective agreement at Danone Sırma Waters

IUF-affiliate Tobacco, Drink, Food and Allied Workers Union of Turkey (Tekgıda-İş) organized the majority of workers in the Sırma Waters business which was acquired by Danone in 2013. The union had successfully applied for bargaining unit status with the Labour Ministry.  However the local management appealed this certification as would normally happen in Turkey as part of most employers’ efforts to delay and deny workers’ rights.

Following the IUF’s negotiations with Danone Paris corporate management, and local management’s intensive discussions with the Tekgıda-İş union leadership, Turkey Sırma Waters management withdrew its appeal against the bargaining unit status and opened collective bargaining discussions with Tekgıda-İş. Following a successful negotiation an agreement was signed at the beginning of January which covers the period January 2020 to December 2021.

Tekgıda-İş has thanked the IUF Secretariat both for the support in its organizing activities at Danone Waters and also for the negotiations with Danone senior management in Paris aimed at ensuring that the newly unionized workforce could exercise its collective bargaining rights at Danone’s Sırma Waters operations in Turkey.