Vol. 72/No. 26      June 30, 2008

Eighty-two shipyard workers in Tuzla have died from on-the-job accidents in the last five years—25 in the last year alone.

In Tuzla, a port in the Istanbul region, there are 43 shipyards, most of them privately owned, accounting for 90 percent of production in Turkey’s booming shipbuilding industry. Since 2002, the workforce there has nearly tripled to 35,000. Turkey’s shipbuilding exports grew from $1.4 billion in 2006 to $2 billion last year.

The employer drive for stepped-up production at all cost has led to skyrocketing injuries and deaths for workers. Most of these have been crane-related.

A June report by a Turkish parliamentary commission described the shipbuilding companies’ disregard for safety at the Tuzla port, where most workers labor in narrow spaces up to 14 hours a day. Most are employed by subcontractors.

At a May rally in front of the shipyards, members of the Limter-Is (Port and Shipyard Workers Union) carried empty caskets and poured red paint over them to symbolize recent deaths.

Limter-Is primarily organizes workers at the port employed by subcontractors. Another union, Dokgemi-Is, represents only permanent workers.

Shipyard owner Cengiz Kaptanoglu complained that Turkish newspapers were calling Tuzla “the shipyards of death.”

Cem Dinz, head of Limter-Is, told the English-language Turkish Daily News that Turan was killed on a Sunday, which is supposed to be a rest day. “If the regulations were implemented,” he said, “Ihsan Turan would be with us today.”

Many of the workers are migrants from poorer regions of Turkey.
 
 
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