Letter From Turkey:

Miners from Soma, Manisa, where the workplace murder of 2014 claimed the lives of 301 workers according to official figures, and Ermenek, Karaman, have been trying to march on Ankara, capital of the country. Organized in Bağımsız Maden İş (Independent Mine Workers Union), a base union in the orbit of the Umut-Sen (Union of Hope) syndical activist collective, the workers bring back the memories of the massive Zonguldak miners’ march of 1991 while demanding to be paid their more than a year old unpaid salaries and better security measures taken for the coronavirus and in general. The workers have been attacked multiple times by the military but the attacks have not deterred them so far.

In the meanwhile, the strike of Soda Industry, Şişecam Kromsan ve Salt Enterprise workers in the cosmopolitan Southern cities of Adana and Mersin, organized in Petrol-İş (Petroleum, Chemical and Tyre Workers Union), member of Türk-İş, the largest confederation of regime unions in the country, has been “postponed” by president Erdoğan for “threatening general health and national security”. The 550 workers are now officially on unpaid leave.