At Least 108 Workers Lose Their Lives in March

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At least 108 workers lost their lives in March across Turkey, according to the report of the Laborers' Health and Occupational Safety (İSİG) Assembly.

The report stated the demands of reduction of the long work hours, employers' recognition of the right to unionize, and an update to the salaries.

Five child workers killed

According to the March report by the İSİG Assembly,

108 workers were killed,

Eighty-five of the killed workers were salaried employees (workers and public servants), and 23 were working for themselves (farmers and craftspeople).

Four of the killed were women, 104 were men. Occupational homicides that claim women's lives occurred in the agriculture and health sectors.

Five killed workers were children aged under 14.

Eleven refugee/migrant workers were killed.

Most common death cause: Being crushed

The sectors with most occupational homicides were construction, agriculture, transportation, municipality/general works, commerce/office, mining, chemistry, and energy.

The most common death causes are being crushed/collapse, traffic/shuttle accidents, falling down from height, and heart attack.

Most occupational homicides occurred in Kayseri

Occupational homicides occurred in 40 cities of Turkey and in four countries.

The provinces with most occupational homicides were Kayseri, Ankara, Kocaeli, İstanbul, İzmir, Adana, Antalya, Denizli, Gaziantep, and Zonguldak.

Only one worker was unionized

Among the 108 workers who lost their lives, only one was a union worker, occupied at the metal sector.

The İSİG Assembly also stated that there might be other deaths of unionized workers but it does not have the possibility to give clear information as "union memberships on paper are not real organizations and many unions do not adopt their killed members."

The names of the killed workers

Ramazan Duman, Yousefi Kamal Aziz, Soner Tarhan, Ali Rıza Yumrukaya, Barış Akış, Muhammet Balande, Mustafa Korkmaz, Mesut Balande, Mehmet İşlek, İsmail Öztorun, Emin Mestan, Adnan Hamo, Hüsnü Bozkurt, Fatih Ormancı, Mehmet Özpolat, Halit Ergüven, Kadirhan Özdemir, Levent İzmir, Mustafa Kaçmaz, Ahmet Özel, Saffet Karamustafa, Ahmet Kaya, İsa Daştan, Muttalip Gür, Rıza Tekin, Ali Ekber Dinçer, Kadir Pestil, Kadir Kıyılı, Yılmaz Yaman, Ali Zeytin, Kenan Ertürk, Mehmet Keleş, Tevfik Koşar, Mustafa Kaya, Ahmet Türkmenoğlu, Mehmet Çiftçi, Mehmet Ali Yalçın, Göksal Çolak, Ahmet Akbayır, Tuncay Türken, Hüseyin Kurt, Ali Can, Turan Aka, Süleyman Gökçen, Murat Yıldır, Hüsamettin Türkmen, Erol Sukar, Tamer Yaman, Sabri Yüksel, Sedat Horoz, Özgür Özkul, Tuncay Erkul, Cevdet Yıldırım, Ömer Anılgan, Abdullah Kiriş, Ömer Kılnaz, Nevzat Çakır, Celal Çetiner, Şener Korkmaz, Senati Aydoğan, Mehmet Gönüllü, Musa Şişman, Sebahattin Yörükoğlu, Kemal Şahin, Hasan Gezer, Reyhan Budak, Tayfun Çelikkıran, Ali Ağkuş, İlhan Odabaşı, Murat Budak, Nazım Ak, Ali Demir, Mehmet Akgül, Fevzi Tunç, Adem Darı, Şervan Akpolat, İbrahim Kalay, Mustafa Dizer, Turan Güler, Sedat Zandal, Bekir Taşkın, Mehmet D., Mevlit Sezgin, Salih Göbeklioğlu, Ahmet Kaya, Enver Ünal, Ahmet Çiftçi, Ahmet Kurt, Sunnatullah Sıharifi, Mehmet Resuloğlu, Elifana Karataş, Asiye Torun, Habip Batu, Ömer Tepe, Sadık Akat, Mikail Duran, Sahyt Gurbanov, Akmoljon Yusupov, Tezcan Barış, Ömer Güngör, Ahmet D., Nergiz Kinno, and six other workers shoe names could not be learned.