using the showers, the sinks. It got dirty again but we could not do the cleaning. We filed several petitions to the camp directorate on the issue of insects, but they never came to take any measures. The cafeterias were not clean either. For example, we would wake up at 6.30, would get dressed and wash up, would go to have breakfast and would wait there 15-20 minutes to have breakfast. After breakfast, we would wait again. This time we would wait in line for 20 minutes, waiting for the shuttles. It took 15 minutes to arrive at the site. Upon our arrival, we would walk for 15 to 20 minutes to go to our work locations, where we would have to sign in. We would be there at 08.00, and would work until noon without taking any breaks. Normally we had the right to take a break at 10.00, but they did not give us this right. We would go for lunch at noon. We would have a 1-hour lunch break, but we would spend 30 minutes of it waiting. Pictures of this were posted on social media anyway. It was clear that the queues were horrible. By the time you waited in line, ate lunch and walked back, one hour would be over. So you do not have time to rest. You spend your right to rest on waiting in lines. They were making us work until 18.00 and it was mandatory to overwork one hour; you are going to work whether you want to or not. If you want to stop at 17.00, you cannot, because there is nowhere to go. In order to leave, you would have to take the shuttle, which would leave at 18.00, not earlier. So you stop working at 18.00, but if they made you do [additional] mandatory overtime, you worked until 21.00 to 22.00. So you would go back to the dormitory at 21.00-22.00. They did not transfer our full salary to our bank accounts. They did not pay all of it so they could pay lower social security premiums. They paid the minimum wage on the 15th of the month, which was around 2000 TL. Then they transferred the overtime payments after the 15th. We always had payments that were transferred to the next month. The subcontractor did not pay. It had an irregular payment system. They paid us when it suited them. Very serious work accidents were taking place. Once, I waited for an ambulance for 23 minutes, holding a friend in my arms who had fallen from a height of five meters. His jaw was shattered, his arm was broken, a couple of rib bones were injured. His teeth were broken, there was blood in his mouth. We had friends who worked at a height of 30 meters. They walked on 30 to 40 cm thick steel on the ceiling floor. A friend asked the occupational safety specialist to “either construct a catwalk or give us a lifeline to tie ourselves. We work at these heights, and there is only a belt but this won’t hold us. We fasten it on our heads, it slides forward 90 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 and falls off, thus pulls us with it and increases the risk of accidents.” When he said that, the specialist answered “we informed management about this, but they don’t do it because the costs are too high.” I realized that they were constantly profitdriven. When you do not provide the worker a lifeline, if there are no anchorage points, if there is nowhere to tie himself to, it would be foolish for him to wear a safety harness. How would they tie themselves up? There is no reason to carry it around as a prop because it creates additional weight. The robes may get in the way and throw the worker down or may cause him to lose his balance and increase the risk of accidents. If I ask you to construct a catwalk or give a lifeline, and you avoid the costs, why should I wear a safety harness? Giving me a safety harness is pointless in this case. Before the September 14 protest, we stopped working on September 5. We said “our bosses should meet us, we should talk. We have a problem. Our salaries are always deferred to the next month. This won’t work anymore. We have needs.” We had just returned back from [eid] holidays and were penniless. I borrowed money to travel back to work. If I had not borrowed money, I would not have been able to return. That is when we called our bosses and the foremen came. The foremen told us to return to work and that “you’re going to be paid in a couple of days.” So we said, “if the boss does not deal with us, then we won’t care about his rights either, we won’t go there, we won’t work.” So we stopped working and that evening they paid all our money. If we had listened to the foremen, the payment would have stalled for another couple of days. There was irregularity. Representatives was not giving time to us to spoke. It was not really possible to see the IGA representatives. However, one day, during Ramadan, the CEO Kadir Samsunlu came in and had dinner with us. That day, we left work and were going to have iftar [dinner during Ramadan]. I arrived in the cafeteria, it was shining, they even scrubbed between the tiles because he was going to come. In the evening of September 13, it was just before the end of the shift, a cable was left on the floor. I had a couple of minutes to catch the 22.00 shuttle, otherwise, I would have taken the 23.00 shuttle. If this cable remained on the floor… There was a problem on floor F. Kadir Bey arrived. In the beginning of September, he told us “I will be sitting in my office by the end of this month, so finish this floor.” The floor was newly being constructed. It only had a [structural] frame. Tile installers, INTERVIEW SUMMARIES 91