Independent Mine Labor Union President Gökay Çakır: "Mine Pits Tear Not Only Workers but Also Families Apart"

İzmir - Independent Mineworkers Union President Gökay Çakır has sharply criticized the mining policies implemented in Turkey since 2004. Çakır stated that these policies have not only affected the safety of mine workers, but also targeted rural life, breaking up families and pushing workers into despair. Çakır said, "They took our fields, then they drove us to the city. We were pushed into the lap of the bosses."

"Our villages were emptied, we were scattered to the cities"

Speaking to Gamze Eskiköy, Gökay Çakır emphasized that the Mining Law, which came into force in 2004, works entirely in the interests of the bosses. Çakır said, "They took my teacher from my village, closed my school, and took our fields. Then they drove us to the city. We were pushed into the arms of the bosses. I had my wife, friends and family in my village. Now they are all scattered. They emptied our villages, our grocery store closed, our children migrated," Çakır said, revealing how life in rural areas was destroyed. Çakır said that miners were usually the children of villagers and that the people of the region were forced to migrate to the cities after the mines were established in villages.

"They Made the Working Class Slaves, Politics is on the Side of Capital"

Gökay Çakır claimed that the working class is increasingly ignored in the current system in Turkey. Stating that politics prioritizes only the owners of capital, Çakır said, "They made the working class slaves to a handful of people. Workers can only come to the political agenda when they die or die en masse. No one cares about the individual worker who dies. The working class is considered worthless in Turkey." Çakır stated that although laws and laws have been changed, MPs and members of parliament do not think about workers, and that although they get their votes from workers, they side with employers and bosses. He emphasized that as long as this unjust order continues, work accidents will be inevitable.

"We bury at least one worker every day: Mining is a Deadly Business"

Stating that the occupational safety system in Turkey has completely collapsed, Çakır said that there is no proper job security for miners. Stating that 160 workers lost their lives last month, but the government and the opposition did not bring these deaths to the agenda, Çakır said, "They do not hear us because we are against the holdings. We lost 301 of our friends, we didn't learn any lessons. 100 more people died, again we were silent. In this country they always blame the worker. Every day we bury at least one worker. We work by putting our heads in a bag and our shrouds in our pockets. Mining is such a job... It is a hard, deadly job," he said, dramatically expressing the risks and difficulties experienced by mine workers.