İstanbul's third airport construction workers on Thursday have penned an open latter addressing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who planned to visit the site.
Erdoğan will land at İstanbul’s new airport on June 22, just two days before the presidential and parliamentary elections.
The letter opens with the lines "Don’t step in Erdoğan! We don’t want to see your face!" and reads "We are the workers of the third airport. We are working under harsh circumstances, trying to survive under inhuman conditions. Now again, just because you will come to the airport for a two-hour show before the elections, we are; forced to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day without any leave."
The airport has become one of the major election issues, with Erdoğan boasting of the idea as evidence of his vision to turn Turkey into one of the world's most innovative and fast-growing economies.
The contractors have been forcing workers to work day and night under inhuman conditions to finish the project.
"We know that bosses can violate any rule, they do not care about occupational accidents or murders, nor they do care about safety or health of their workers. What they only care about is their profit. You cover up and deny the murders of our friends and expect us to carry on working. When we do not want to work overtime you threaten us with dismissal without compensation," the workers said in the letter.
As some resources report that around 400 workers have been killed at the site since the beginning of the massive airport project, the AKP government denies such reports and says that only 27 workers died since the construction had begun in May 2015.
The workers refused to work several times as their salaries were not paid for two months. Tens of thousands of subcontracted workers working under 1500 firms are employed for the third airport project. In February 2018, more than 1500 workers had blocked the roads to protest bad working conditions and long working hours, as they are being pushed to finalize the airport construction very soon.
"Do not step in Erdoğan, we do not want to see your face. Thanks to you, we understood that we will not have a moment of peace until we change this order of exploitation!" the workers said in the latter.
