At the construction site of the new airport in Istanbul, where dozens of workers have died (officially 35) and are continuous labor accidents, ambulances are no longer using their sirens!
Last Friday, after a new accident involving 17 injured workers, the new airport became the scene of major mobilizations that met the violence and repression by the Turkish government and contractors with hundreds arrests of workers.
Because of this, after a new labor accident that happened yesterday, on September 25, the ambulances used did not turn on their sirens, in order to avoid reactions of the workers who jeopardize their lives daily.
However, the struggle and mass mobilization are the way to ensure the safety of workers’ lives. The strikes and interruptions of the work have already forced the Government of Turkey to postpone the grand opening it planned for October 29th. It is also a result of the workers’ pressure for the miserable working conditions. It takes perseverance and determination in the struggle to satisfy our fair demands, improve working conditions and safety in the workplace.
Workers know that the new airport, and the capitalist growth in general, in every country, is built with the sweat and blood of the workers.
PAME and the National Federation of Construction Workers of Greece are steadily on the side of the workers in the construction of the new airport of Istanbul and in the future we will take new initiatives to support their struggle.
PAME Denounces the New Arrests of Workers In Turkey
PAME denounces the arrests of trade unionists and workers in Turkey during the protest of Nakliyat Is, a member of the WFTU, demanding the payment of employees of the REAL Market.
Employees of REAL, after the acquisition of the company in which they worked from the MAKRO group, proceeded to protests demanding the payment of their compensations. After months of mobilization and with the support of the Greek Unions of Commerce and PAME, the company initially promised to pay 50% of those money on September 20th. After the employers failed to do so, the employees along with the Union proceeded to mobilize in the group’s stores. The employers responded with the help of the police and the arrest of 15 workers and trade unionists, including the President of the Union and a member of the WFTU Presidential Council, Ali-Riza Küçükosmanoğlu. After a massive mobilization in the police station, and after several hours of detention, the detainees were released.
In Turkey, as in Greece, with ongoing courts against militant farmers, arrests and prosecutions of trade unionists, suppression of protests against auctions, etc., it turns out that governments and the mechanisms of repression are at the disposal of the employers for the suppression of workers’ struggles.
PAME denounces the new arrests of trade unionists and workers in Turkey who are fighting for their rights. The struggle for the right of workers does not stop with arrests and intimidations. We stand by the side of the REAL Marker workers and Nakliyat Is in their fair fight.