The number of cases and deaths is increasing day by day due to the coronavirus (Kovid-19) outbreak. Thousands of workers are laid off, while construction workers who are forced to work are exposed to the virus. The Construction Workers Union (İnşaat-İş) initiated a campaing called 'Solidarity saves lives' last week for the workers who were laid off due to the coronavirus. Construction Workers Union (İnşaat-İş) Organization Secretary Yunus Özgür made evaluations about the victimization of the construction workers and the campaign they started.

 

REQUIREMENT TO SIGN THE CONTRACT

 

Özgür stating that some workers were made to sign contracts that they have the responsibility if they are infected with coronavirus, said: "They are making the workers sign these contracts and those who don't sign gets laid off. Most of them agreed to sign these contracts because they are very poor. They are telling the people to stay home, but if these people stay home, they will starve. And not only they will starve, so will their children."

 

 

Kimi şantiyelerde işçilere, “Çalışırken koronavirüse yakalanırsam sorumluluk bendedir” ibarelerinin yer aldığı taahhütnamelerin imzalatıldığı bilgisini veren Özgür, “Bu formlar zorla imzalatılıyor, imzalamayanlar da işten çıkarılıyor. Birçok arkadaşımız imzalamış, çünkü gerçekten çok yoksul insanlar. ‘Evde kalın’ diyorlar ama imzalamak zorunda kalanlar eve gitse aç kalacak, sadece tek başına aç kalmayacak, çocukları da aç kalacak” dedi.

 

CALL FOR SOLIDARITY

 

Özgür pointed out that they want the shifts to be shorter and fewer workers to work at shifts, said: "They have to take measures against the coronavirus, all workers except the key workers like those working in food, energy and health sectors must be allowed to have a paid leave. We want the electricity, natural gas and waters bills not to be collected in this period. What we need these days is solidarity. There are people whose life depend on this solidarity. Anyone who would like to contribute can call us. We will deliver whatever they can spare, to those who need it."

 

AID CAMPAIGN

 

Özgür stating that they have started a 'Solidarity saves lives' campaign, said the target audience is the construction workers but they want to help anyone who needs it. Özgür said: "The people working in this sector are poor people, many of them are forced to go to work to western cities from Kurdish cities. We want to help these people as best as we can.  We will prepare aid boxes and we will also provide cash aid. People have electricity, water, natural gas bills, they are in a very difficult situation. Our goal is to be able to help them a little bit."

 

Expressing that there is great interest in the campaign and that they have started to provide aid to workers, Özgür stated that they will share the aid and the amount they distribute with the public in terms of transparency.

 

MA / Emrullah Acar