Retired miners protest in Turkey: ‘I avoid my children because I don’t have money’

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Miners in Manisa's Soma district staged a protest demanding an increase in their pensions yesterday (January 9).

Addressing the public at the demonstration organized by the Independent Miners' Union, retired miners underlined that it is impossible to make ends meet with a monthly pension of 2,500 lira (~180 USD).

A miner who retired in 2019 said, "My pension was higher than the minimum wage by 304 liras. It is now lower than the minimum wage by 600 liras. Should I believe in the justice or injustice of this government?"

Requesting that pensions be increased at the same rate as the minimum wage, the retired miner stated, "I am grateful only because I breathe. I am a person who worked in a mine for 25 years. I am speaking in the name of myself, my three children and my job. If there is justice in this country and, hopefully there is, we want to be above the standards that were in place when we retired. I was earning 300 liras more. Should I revolt?"

'We are dead now'

Noting that he worked in the mine for 25 years, but he is now "dead", the retired miner added the following in brief:

"I am a person who worked in the mine for 25 years. I am now speaking only on my own behalf. No one other than myself interests me now.

"If there is retirement in this country, the state must stand behind it and keep people alive; it must take care of people. Because they give their lungs. My kidneys don't work. I have a problem with my liver. I have heart failure. Why? Because I worked in an another's mine. Why? To sustain my children's lives easily... We pensioners are dead now. We are condemned to death."

'MPs batten on us'

Another retired miner said that while he receives 2,500 lira a month, "the MPs find their own pensions low". Asking why retired MPs find 18 thousand liras low, the retired miner briefly said the following:

"We are the ones who produce, we are the ones who work. The MPs are the ones who batten on us. Today, we as the people vote for these MPs; they batten on us. The food they eat, the clothes they wear, the cars they drive... We give them this whole luxurious life. But why are we afraid? Is this pension of 2 thousand 500 liras enough for us?"

'Isn't this retirement an atrocity?'

Another retired miner said that he worked in the mine for 20 years and expressed his protest in the following words:

"I am a person who ate off his lap for 20 years. I am a person who ate off his lap for 20 years... In 2014, they told us about double pensions. Yes, we worked. Now the wage that we get... I get ashamed when I go to my children. Because I am ashamed. Do I buy oil? Do I buy flour? Do I buy gas for my car? My three children go to school. I am ashamed in front of my children. Isn't this retirement an atrocity, a death?

"I am a person who gets 2,812 lira wage. I avoid my children, my friends. I avoid them, I don't have money. I avoid my children, I avoid my three children. All three of them go to school. If I give them 20 lira each, it means 60 lira in total. A sack of flour used to cost 120 lira; it now costs 400. The gas of the car used to cost 2.80 lira; it now costs 8.40 lira." (HA/SD)