The Port, Shipyard, Ship Construction and Repair Workers Trade Union (Limter-İş) strike named “Rather than dying one by one, kill us all on June 16” began yesterday.

To the approximately 1000 people crowd, only 400 workers out of 40000 could join. By accompanying the service buses that bring workers to work at five in the morning, the police prevented the workers from joining the strike.

Among the thousand people who joined the strike were the feminists, the Patriotic Front, Ufuk Uras, İstanbul deputy of the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP), the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP), the Labor Party (EMEP), Lambdaistanbul, the Socialist Platform for the Oppressed (ESP), the United Metal Workers Union.

Kamber Saygılı, the secretary-general of Limter İş, stated, “We are here to live as human beings, we thank everyone who supports us. The strike has become an obligation now. Nothing has been done to stop the deaths.”

Uras: By hanging together, we can end the rule of the thieves

Ufuk Uras said, “Seeing that the workers’ death has become such a common occurrence, it becomes clear that the ruling party’s (AKP) idea of let the weaker disappear is behind this. Solidarity is very important. By hanging together, we can end the rule of the thieves.”

Seyit Nusret Özürk, the lawyer of the Shipyard Workers’s Union (TİB-DER) made the comment that “according to the bill for the Union Law that has been waiting in the parliament, the shipbuilding branch needs to be attached to the metal work branch, but they have not accepted this. The bill has been waiting in the parliament. What the bosses want became true.”

Tayfun Görgün, the secretary general of the Revolutionary Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions, said, “They brought the union bill to the parliament this year again, but they will reject it. It was a diversion move to trick the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Thirteen workers died in Tuzla shipyards in five months. Limter İş organized the strike against the high rates of injuries and deaths in the shipyards for many years. (BÇ/NZ/TB)