“I could have done this for another 30 years,” says Fatih Yildiz. His grandfather worked at Weru, as did his mother and then his father. He himself has been there since 2017, in the filling department, and he thinks the work is “okay because you have to think for yourself.” The solidarity among colleagues (almost only men work here) is very good, and a lot of things are done together privately too. It would be all the more bitter for Yildiz not to be able to work here anymore. “The fact that they are now just throwing away 180 years really pisses me off.” Going to Thuringia is not an option for him. “We grew up here, I have family here, we bought something. I also heard that they are not so friendly with foreigners there.”
When Yildiz says family, he doesn’t just mean his wife and children. Uncles and cousins stand around him. Engin Cimen, Süleyman Cimen, Muhammet Cimen, and Ahmet Cimen joins them later. Bernd Matzke is in the middle. “I grew up with them.” They all have yellow Weru safety vests on; they want to be seen when they put up the wooden crosses in the village. They have built 150, as many as the number of jobs lost. A grey Weru polo shirt is put over each cross, and they are pulled through the village on a trailer by a small tractor. On top is Süleyman Cimen, Yildiz’s uncle. This is his tractor, he says. He has orchards and is also a hunter – hence the vehicle. He chugs leisurely to the edge of the village. Here Muhammet Cimen, the tallest of the men, hammers the crosses into the ground with a heavy hammer. “The banner too,” calls one of them. “Weruanians are fighting for their jobs,” it says, and it is to be stretched between two crosses. “Cable ties?” “I don’t have one,” says Ahmet Cimen, brother of Süleyman, works council member and current leader. “Then we’ll use a rope to fasten it.” No sooner said than done, the banner is tied up. “Pocket knife?” “I don’t have one,” is the reply again. Ahmet Cimen grins. “I didn’t want to, otherwise the press will write something about Turks and knives.” The mood is relaxed, people are joking.
