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Article

1 Dec 2008

Author:
Nicholas Birch, Eurasianet

Turkey: Female worker's five-month sit-in sheds light on worker's rights

Emine Arslan['s]...solitary 150-day sit-in outside a prominent Istanbul factory that supplies leather goods to international brands like Prada and Mulberry has attracted unprecedented domestic and international attention to labor rights issues in Turkey...Arslan says her dismissal came just days after she joined a trade union to fight for better working conditions. "They made us work 60, 70, sometimes even 80 hour weeks for 485 lira [$300] a month", she says. "I had had enough, so I joined up"..."Prada has taken all initiatives to be reasonably sure that all is well at Desa," Andrea Gaudenzi, a spokesman for the Italian brand, says..."We have been working very closely both with other brands and the union, and will continue to do so", says Mulberry's supply director Ian Scott... [Emine Arslan] intends to continue her protest until Desa re-employs her as a union member.