17 Miners Killed In Explosion & Collapse

Miner union activists interviewed by Bianet stressed the ongoing problem of safety at work in Turkish mines arguing that the prevention of union activities and membership at these work places were resulting with more accidents and deaths.

Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler, who revealed the accident to the press, said "unfortunately these are accidents that happen in mining. Unfortunately these can happen due to the nature of mining". He added that at the time of the explosion there were 57 workers in the mine and 35 escaped the incident without injury.

Guler said there was no deficiency in the inspection of the mine while Balikesir Chamber of Commerce Chairman Erhan Ortakoylu told reporters that "there is no negligence in this incident but unfortunately such things happen in mining".

Turkey's Revolutionary Mine Exploration and Operation Workers Union chairman Cetin Uygur told Bianet that mine workers were being made to pay for decisions disallowing unions from the workplace.

"Circles of capital that say they will erase the state from the mining sector do not allow unions into their field" Uygur said. "They make the society, the miners, pay for their failure of not abiding by the regulations of mining".

Uygur said that both statements made after the incident and the initial information pointed at possible negligence towards workplace safety in this accident and quoted minister Guler saying that rescue teams had been sent to the mine from three other mining areas in Turkey following the collapse.

"In other words, this shows that the operation did not have an equipped, masked, oxygen carrying security team that could have intervened immediately" Uygur said.

He also referred to Guler's explanation to the press that 10 minutes prior to the blast an engineer had taken gas measurements and there was no immediate danger. "Which" said Uygur, "shows that the gas measurement is dependent on only one measuring device on the shoulder of an individual. Whereas, there should be security teams on every shift in the mine measuring gas levels".

Uygur explained, "gas is inside the coal. When the worker starts digging, the gas starts coming out. The instrument starts making a noise when there is gas. In other words both an explosion and harm to workers can be prevented. But if the measurements are not taken for 24 hours, then the conditions of death are being prepared".

The unionist also argued that regulations related to work security and worker health were not being enforced particularly in the area of measuring gas that could be potentially explosive.

Private sector targets primitive production

Recalling that in previous incidents 17 miners had died in Gediz, Kutahya and 19 miners at the Kure copper mine in Kastamonu, Uygur said "the private sector is enforcing a great amount of exploitation in mining, targeting primitive production."

"Mine operations are in the rural areas. Rural area workers, peasants work as mine workers. They are silent, they are calm. They see the income they receive from the mine operation as something big. They do not have much information on safety at work," he explained.

Uygur said that unions at mines would prevent accidents and deaths but referred to a recent meeting of the union where it was revealed that the primary reason of redundancy at mines was being a union member whereas the primary choice for new employees was that they were not members of any union. "These operations are doing everything within their hands to prevent unions from entering the workplace" he said.

Unions prevent deaths

Emin Tazegul from Turkey's Mine Workers Union (Maden-Is) explained that "accidents at the workplace are result of not enforcing the legislation".

She said "if there were unions at the workplace, they would monitor that legislation is enforced. Where there are unions, the number of accidents will decline noticeably". (TK/II/YE)