Trade union rights in light of the case law of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights

Trade unions, which emerged as a reaction to the extraordinary hassles created by the Industrial Revolution and capitalism for workers, have carried out many activities throughout history with the aim of improving working conditions and increasing the living standards of the working class. In this context, trade unions sometimes engaged in activities that were predominantly economic and professional; however, when they figured out that political and economic order was the actual reason of problems, they could not refrain from resorting to political actions. Yet, except for exceptional cases, the capitalist and neoliberal economic policies adopted around the world for more than two centuries, have resulted in very limited safeguards for trade union rights in legal systems. For this reason, from past to present, trade union organizations and their members have frequently come into conflict with states. Indeed, this study focuses primarily on a specific aspect of the problem in question: it attempts to reveal the fundamental perspective on trade union rights and freedoms of the European Court of Human Rights, the first court that comes to mind in the European continent in line with the aim of protecting human rights and the Turkish Constitutional Court, which has been operating for over ten years with the mission of redressing violations of fundamental rights and freedoms in our country through individual applications. In this regard, the question of on what grounds and at what level of legal protection are provided by the aforementioned courts to trade union rights, which are both in inevitable conflict with neoliberal orders and have an intensely political character, constitutes the main subject of this thesis. Accordingly, when individual applications are brought to the agenda that focus on trade union rights such as forming and joining a union, collective bargaining or striking, the legal findings and conclusions of the courts in question are explained. At the same time, the political and economic rationales behind these legal assessments are explored with might and main.