in articles of labour legislation etc. Even those rules were not followed. IGA management already accepted that the demands were right, but did not find the protests legitimate. İGA was almost part of the state. During the protest, we also saw that security forces acted as if they were İGA’s private security. There have been some partial improvements since the protests. But no investigations were conducted and no sanctions were imposed for issues that range from unpaid insurance premiums to lack of measures to ensure workers’ health and safety. In lawsuits filed against us, they had no evidence or witness that would prove/testify that we had been provocative. What is interesting is that in the beginning, the IGA management conducted official negotiations with us, but once we decided to continue with the protest, the situation changed. Following the protest, social media posts were used to dismiss a large number of workers. At the same time, there were many workers who decided to resign out of fear of being taken into custody. I was arrested for two months based on accusations such as violating of the freedom to work, harming public property, participating in a demonstration with an unarmed weapon, property violation, disobeying the Law on Demonstrations and Assemblies. I was released as a result of high public support. The case is currently ongoing. If we want to we talk about foreign companies in our sector, the situation is as follows: Maybe they have international labour agreements and they comply with these there [in their home countries], but they comply with the employment regime of their host country. They see this as an opportunity. For example, 11 workers burned to death at the Marmara Park AVM shopping mall.101 Maybe 101 11 workers burned to death in a fire on March 11, 2012 at the Marmara Park Shopping Mall construction site. The investors of the project worth EUR 220 million were the investment fund DWS owned by the Deutsche Bank and ECE/Otto Group with each having a 50% share. ECE Turkey was founded by the German ECE Group in 2000. They work in the development, planning, construction, renting, management and financing of large scale mall investment projects. They manage large malls such as Metrocity, Beylikdüzü Migros AVM, CarrefourSA Maltepe Park in Istanbul; ANKAmall in Ankara, Antalya Migros AVM and Terracity AVM in Antalya, EM in Eskişehir and CarrefourSA Karşıyaka AVM in Izmir. The company opened the doors of Marmara Park located in Esenyurt/Beylükdüzü region of Istanbul with a 100 sqm rentable space to the public in October 2012. The fire of Marmara Park construction site became a symbol of the results of severe work safety negligence. The related legal cases are still ongoing. In these cases, the persons responsible in the contractor domestic firms of the German company and for the construction stand trial. The Workers’ Families Seeking Justice Platform, composed of the families of the workers who lost their lives and legal experts, tries to keep the issue alive in the public. (http://iscinayetleriniunutma.org/11-iscinin-yanarak-can-verdigi-bir-olayda-yakinlarinin-karsisina-cikma-cesaretleriyok/). 88 C O L L E C T I V E R I G H T S O F W O R K E R S U N D E R T U R K E Y ’ S C O N T I N U O U S S TAT E O F E M E R G E N C Y T R A D E U N I O N R I G H T S I N E U R O P E A N A N D E U R O P E A N - A F F I L I AT E D E N T E R P R I S E S this is not possible in other countries in the world and only seen in 3rd world countries. But the owners of the company were from Germany. Let’s look at Qatar or Iraq or Afghanistan. All of the companies that have construction projects in these countries are international; they are either from the US, Germany or the Netherlands etc. They may be complying with labour laws in their own countries, working conditions may be better there, but if there are no laws in the countries they go to, or if laws merely remain on paper, they can be more daring. 3rd (Istanbul) Airport Construction Worker, Osman Üney, member of DİSKDevrimci Yapı-İş Union (August 4, 2019) Osman Üney: 21 years old, works as an electrician at constructions. He has been working in construction for the last 3 years. He worked at subcontractor companies at the İstanbul Airport construction since 2018. He was taken into custody after the September 2018 protest and was later released on judicial control. During the protest, he was not a member of a trade union. He later became a member of Dev-Yapı İş. His trial is ongoing. In February 2018, I was employed by a firm that worked on the Airport construction site. After completing two months, I argued with an engineer and my employment ended. Three months later, I went back to the Airport and continued working there until September 14, 2018. I worked at a subcontractor company of a subcontractor company for eight months. I was responsible for electrical construction on floor E of the TB1 terminal region. As subcontractor, you are under extra pressure. As the subcontractor of a subcontractor, you are under even more pressure. For example, they pressure you to finish a job that otherwise cannot be completed in two days. They usually do this by threatening you, saying: “if you do not deliver the job, your contract will be cancelled.” When a contract gets cancelled, we lose our job. So you ignore job safety and only care about earning your living; you work quickly, you panic. I was staying at the Akpınar camp in room 35 of dormitory C-6. Four people shared a room in the prefabricated structure. The conditions were very bad. Insects were roaming around in the room. 300 people stayed in the prefabricated building and it got cleaned only once a day. For example, if we left in the morning, they cleaned it after we left and when we arrived in the evening, the rooms would get dirty within just an hour. Because 300 people were walking around. They were INTERVIEW SUMMARIES 89