Commemorating Turkish Labour

The memorial forest of the TURK-IS

TÜRK-IS is the largest confederation of Turkish workers' unions and a member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). The union has strongly influenced the development of the Turkish trade union movement from the very beginning. TÜRK-IS has many unions with strong membership and PETROL-IS is one of them. 

As the largest and most influential trade union in Turkey, TÜRK-IS does not have a specific category on its website that focuses exclusively on women's issues, but it plants a memorial forest every year on International Women's Day on March 8 to commemorate women workers in Turkey.

In 2014, 2000 saplings were planted in the Kepsut district of Balikesir province in accordance with an agreement with the TEMA Foundation, giving the area the name “Türk-Is Women Workers Memorial Forest”. In the following years, until 2017, memorial forests were also planted in various cities such as Denizli and Ankara. In this way, the union is giving special recognition to the importance of women in the Turkish labor movement and helping to keep their achievements in memory.

Contributed by Ela Gül (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)