Contractors of the Istanbul's massive airport threatened to dismiss the workers if they would not work on May Day.
Some workers told soL News that most contractors instructed the workers to continue to work on International Workers' Day, otherwise, they would be fired, implying that those who participated May 1 rallies would be dismissed.
İstanbul’s new airport project is known to have claimed the lives of many workers due to long and unsafe working conditions. About 30,000 people have worked in difficult conditions on the construction of the airport, which has been marred by occupational murders.
In February, the Turkish AKP government said 27 workers had died since construction began in May 2015, denying reports that about 400 workers had perished and that most incidents had been covered up through compensations to the families of the dead.
Earlier in February, more than 1,500 workers had blocked the roads at the airport construction site to protest the poor working conditions. The workers had previously rallied to the camp management office to voice their complaints: "We do not want to live like animals".
İstanbul's new airport is promoted as a great success by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP government.
The airport project was awarded in 2013 to a consortium, namely Kalyon, Cengiz, Limak, Kolin and MNG. The same companies have stood out in public projects for years, winning tender after tender in major sectors such as power distribution and the construction of subways, tunnels and dams.
The project was based on the build-operate-transfer model of public-private partnership. In return for 25 years of operational rights, the companies would pay certain rents but would enjoy profit guarantees by the government. The Treasury will make up for any gap between the guaranteed and actual number of passengers. The contractors have been forcing workers to work day and night under inhuman conditions to finish the project.
