Why does the shipbuilding committee meet in Turkey?
The annual meeting of the EMF shipbuilding committee is in 2008 organised in Istanbul to demonstrate solidarity with the Turkish shipyard workers. Their employment situation is of extreme precariousness (90 % are employed by subcontractors – or chains of subcontractors; have insufficient social security coverage; often work unregistered on the yards, have insufficient or no health insurance, receive little or no health and safety training, are penalised for joining unions). A Turkish parliamentary report has found that the shipyards operate in complete disregard of existing occupational safety regulations. The results have been fatal: · In 2007, 13 workers, all working for subcontracting firms, died in occupational accidents, of which 11 died in Tuzla · In 2008 until September, 22 workers died in Turkish shipyards, of which 17 workers left their lives in Tuzla. The EMF has over the past two years been organising solidarity actions for the Turkish colleagues (press releases, condolence
