‘Occupational Homicides a Result of Precarious and Excessive Work’

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After worker Erkan Sengül lost his life and another worker Mümin Özgül was severely wounded in an occupational homicide at the new İstanbul Airport yesterday (August 14), the bad working conditions, occupational homicides and the resulting deaths and injuries at the airport since its construction have once again prompted concerns among the public.

CLICK - Occupational Homicide at İstanbul Airport: One Worker Dies

Speaking to bianet about the recent occupational homicide at the airport, Murat Çakır from the Occupational Health and Occupational Safety (İSİG) Assembly has underlined that privatization, subcontracting and deunionization are the actual causes of such incidents:

"The incident occurred at the 3rd Airport, but it summarizes the situation of Turkish Airlines (THY) to an extent. The company has long been undergoing privatization and an accompanying subcontracting. It has also been declaring loss for a long time. Workers are generally made to work for long hours.

'THY is run like a private factory'

"The majority of them are subcontracted workers anyway. Until a few years ago, the Hava-İş (Air-Work) Union was active here, but a series of methods were used to weaken the union and these methods have indeed become successful. And what we experience today is the full consequence of it.

"Both the ground servicing workers and airlines workers used to be unionized, but the THY and especially its ground servicing unit are run like a private factory. All these incidents that occur under the name of accidents are, in fact, a consequence of precarious employment.

'The promised future is deaths...'

"People are employed based on kith and kin relations, people are regarded as cheap labor. However, the future that they promise is the incidents that we face today, the deaths... And last week, the Havaist had a traffic accident and a flight attendant has lost her life.

CLICK - Bus Carrying Passengers to İstanbul Airport Has an Accident

"People used to be considered lucky if they worked at an airport. They used to view it as such considering high wages and favorable working conditions, but that fact that two incidents of death occurred in two units of the airport manifests the situation quite clearly.

'Aren't maintenance works done?'

"The vehicle lifting device goes down. Aren't the maintenance works of these machines done? Aren't they driven or used by qualified people? These are all posing a question mark, we cannot even get information now.

"When the union was here, they were intervening in all these and there were no such incidents of death. Now, we cannot even get information about the deaths. They are only mentioned in the reports prepared by inspectors. And chances are quite slim to learn about them from these reports." (RT/SD)

* Photograph: Twitter