Labour and trade unionism in Turkey: the Eregli coalminers

Abstract

The Eregli Coal Basin' is located in the province of Zonguldak, which is in northwestern Turkey bordering the Black Sea; within its boundaries lie virtually all of the known deposits of bituminous coal. This extremely mountainous area is the centre of Turkish heavy industry; besides coal, Turkey's two steel plants are located in this province-one at Karabuk and the other at Eregli. The coal deposits are wholly owned by the state and operated by the Eregli Komiirui Isletmesi (EKI), the Eregli Coal Administration, one of the more important state enterprises. Employing close to 50,000 workers, EKI and the basin itself have in recent years witnessed increasing labour difficulties and violence. The most major event, one with far-reaching implications and consequences, took place in March 1965.2 Beginning as a somewhat localised event and ultimately spreading throughout the region and involving almost the entire labour force, this wildcat strike culminated in several coalminers being shot by Turkish marines in a midnight clash. Since then, the area has been plagued by spontaneous outbursts and demonstrations, wildcat strikes and violence. In most instances it has been directed against both management and the union, but not infrequently against the latter solely. At the centre of these recurring disputes has been the largest local union in the area-for that matter, in Turkey-the Zonguldak Maden IJsileri Sendakasi (ZMWU), the Zonguldak Mine Workers' Union. All of the workers at EKI-some 47,000 are members, and it has exclusive representational rights with respect to collective bargaining for the mine workers. It is one of the most financially sound unions in Turkey, and the pattern which it sets in its collective agreements often serves as a model of demands in other sectors of the economy. The labour movement in the basin is complex, involving as it does a heterogenous labour force in both cultural and educational terms. It comprises, in essence, some 30,000 workers who are not totally committed to an industrial way of life, and some 20,000 who are. It is in many ways a labour force in transition, moving slowly away from its agricultural orientation and increasingly being forced to rely on industrial employment for its livelihood. Caught clearly between two ways of life, the majority of the workers in the coal mines are frustrated and confused, given to emotional and uncontrolled outbursts against those features of their working lives which they feel impinge upon them but which they feel helpless to counter. It is the problems with which the nascent labour movement is beset, when confronted by a culturally and intellectually disparate labour force, with which this article is concerned. While it deals directly with the