Turkish workers have a proud history of organising and fighting for better conditions. Unfortunately, the last few years under the Presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have seen conditions deteriorate with workers coming increasingly under more pressure.

The huge new airport being built just outside Istanbul examplifies this new reality with workers continually facing insscure and dangerous workplaces but then when they try to organise to win better conditions, the full force of the state is brought against them.

APC recently spoke with Hasan Demir (not his real name), a labour activist at the Istanbul airport, who explained the conditions facing workers and the recent events that saw hundreds of workers detained by the police.

Due to circumstances beyond our control there was no APC program for Saturday Nov 24. Our apologies.

Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia