UNISON’s national delegate conference heard this morning that the Soma mining disaster in May highlighted what happens when private profits are treated as being more important than the lives of working people.
The mine collapse killed 301 miners, making it “the worst mining disaster in Turkey’s history”.
The disaster has been “linked to Turkey’s current privatisation policies,” said a speaker from West Yorkshire Transport.
“Safety standards at the mine fell after it was privatised,” she continued, and went on to explain how the Turkish government behaved in the aftermath, with the prime minister suggesting that it was ‘just one those things that happen all the time’.
Conference called on the Turkish government to ratify and implement the International Labour Organisation’s convention 176 on health and safety, and to value the lives of miners above private profit.