Workers’ Union Confederation ‘saddened and angry’ over coal mine explosion in Turkey

Mine accidents over the last ten years in Turkey claimed hundreds of lives and now once again 41 workers lost their lives trapped in a coal mine which drives the workers “saddened and angry”, The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK) said on Saturday. 

“We witnessed that after every great massacre, they say ‘Nothing will be the same as before’ and ‘Necessary measures will be taken’ but then everything continues as before, and no measures are taken” DISK said in a statement. 

DISK protested the jurisdiction process of another coal mine disaster in 2014 which claimed 301 lives in the Soma town of Western Turkey where every suspect was released pending trial and “not a single person was behind bars.”

DISK said deaths of miners’ were being “normalized” in Turkey like “that was their destiny” despite their calls to the government to take appropriate measures adding that it did not accept the government's claim that the accident was due to a “transformation explosion” in the mine. 

“We will struggle to create an alternative to a collapsed system,” the unions confederation said.