The real labor starts here

Bursa, Turkey?s automotive hub, is going through a labor uprising that?s worth a generation. Generally a center-right leaning town for decades, the city of my childhood is becoming a symbol of workers? resistance. Not surprisingly, the auto industry is at the heart of it.

When I was growing up in Bursa during the late 1970s and early 1980s, the two car makers of Turkey were everything the city owned. The most basic and least dangerous children?s game in the neighborhood was guessing the number of Tofa? cars versus Renault cars that would pass. Depending on your luck, you could win a bar of chocolate or force others to carry your deathly heavy schoolbag. 

I had school friends with names like Marco and Enrico but they could speak perfect Turkish. They were the sons of Italian engineers who had moved to Bursa to help manufacture the TOFA? 131, the trendiest car of that generation (silver was popular).  Bursa was better than Turin or Detroit. By the time you reached your teens, you could choose to play basketball with the best teams in town. And yes, they were called TOFA? or OYAK Renault. MAKO was good at volleyball.

A lot has changed in the auto culture and industry in Bursa since then, but some things remain the same. Last week, after the workers of a family-owned small component maker, Co?kunöz, decided to go on a wage strike, their action spread like wildfire. Now, just a week after the first attempt, Turkey?s biggest export item production has almost come to a complete stop. And this means Bursa will slowly shut down.

So what is at stake in Bursa? Workers at the Bosch brake factory have signed a deal with a better package.
The news got out and one after another, factory workers in the automotive and parts industry demanded...