A worker on the Çukurova International Airport project, one marred by continuous delays in Mersin, Turkey, has alleged unfair dismissal of workers over failure to join the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Construction began on the airport on 28 May 2013 in the Tarsus district of Mersin, but despite repeated government promises of its imminent opening, it has been postponed several times. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu in his latest announcement claimed round-the-clock efforts to launch operations, originally scheduled for January.
With extensive facilities designed to accommodate nine million passengers annually, the airport’s completion has been eagerly awaited. However, its construction site has become a battleground for workers’ rights, with protests erupting over issues like unpaid wages and poor working conditions.
A former subcontracted cleaning supervisor at the airport known only as M.A. is claiming unfair dismissal of workers for not being members of the AKP. He explained how management had filtered the workforce based on political allegiance, shedding light on some of the harsh realities of the working conditions: “Management handed us a list of AKP members and instructed us to identify those who were not on the list and report back. Subsequently, around 150 to 200 workers were coerced into signing ‘unpaid leave forms’ and then laid off. Then later, four supervisors including myself were let go on the grounds that there were too many supervisors for the reduced worker numbers.”
M.A.’s allegations extend to unsafe working conditions, with reports of uninsured labour and neglect of worker safety. “I was told about a colleague who got electrocuted before my time. An uninsured worker who blacked out on the job wasn’t even taken to the hospital. While I personally didn’t face harassment, there was evident pressure to dismiss workers,” he stated, highlighting a concerning trend towards creating a workforce compliant with the political status quo, as voiced by critics of the government’s approach to labour and dissent.
