A press statement was read in front of the GOP Courthouse for the 3rd Airport workers who were arrested for their action against slave working conditions.

A call was made for people to attend the first hearing due on 5 December. Tezcan Acu, executive member of Construction Work (İnşaat İş ) called on prosecutors to carry out their duties and to try the actual criminals.

The Solidarity Platform with Istanbul 3rd Airport Workers held a press conference on the 56th day of its action against bad working for 31 workers who were arrested in previous actions and are detained at Silivri Penal Institutions Campus.

The first hearing of the trial against the workers will be held at Gaziosmanpaşa (GOP) Courthouse and the Platform called on all workers and people to attend the hearing in solidarity with workers. Likewise, the Platform demanded the release of workers.

HDP deputy Dilşat Canbaz Kaya expressed their support to Kenan Güngördü, a worker at the Zeytinburnu Municipality, investigated for “security reasons”.

Underlining that the 3rd Airport (Istanbul Airport) was built on the lives and bodies of the workers, HDP Deputy Dilşat Canbaz Kaya said: “The arrest of those protesting at the 3rd Airport site is a political decision. The government is trying to create an empire of fear with this political decision. Despite the fact that we move what happened at the airport to the Parliament, we could not get any answer because of political decisions”.

HDP’s Kaya called on all sensitive citizens to “show their solidarity with workers and attend the hearing on 5 December”.   

Seven Gider, mother of Anıl Deniz Gider, one of the workers in prison, said: “Those who break the doors and arrest our children should be tried, not our sons. My son was there to earn his bread and to defend his friends’ rights. They can't intimidate us with these arrests. I'm standing behind my child, I'm standing firmly on my feet”. 

Workers of the construction site opened for the 3rd Airport are forced to work in inhuman conditions, as pointed out by the Construction Workers Union executive member, Tezcan Acu.

Acu explained how workers began to resist and oppose these slave working conditions since 14 September, but no change was registered. Instead, he added, “workers who want to stop death in the working place and who defend human working conditions are arrested”.

The families of the 31 workers in prison for 2 months are suffering as they have no income, the trade unionist said, adding: “Workers are forced to work face to face with death every day. The works at the 3rd Airport site are carried out under the supervision and control of the gendarmerie and the police”.

Acu added: “Unhealthy and bad conditions continue in the food halls, service and dormitories. Workers are supposedly contracted for 6 months, but they are dismissed before the 6 months so they are paid severance money”.

The trade union executive added that workers were arrested for defending workers’ rights. “We will continue to expose the real criminals. - said Acu - And the real criminals are those who act unpunished, the bosses, the ministers linked to the AKP presidency who turn a blind eye to the real crimes. We call on the prosecutors to perform their duties and to judge the real criminals”.