Polyak A.Ş., located in the Kınık district of İzmir, operates in the same mining basin where the Soma Massacre took place. For more than ten years the mine had been running through the labour of thousands of miners working under extremely dangerous conditions and on highly unstable ground. In this mine—where work is carried out below sea level—our union has, since its founding, disciplinedly led an intense process of struggle and organisation around numerous issues, including workers’ health and safety, wages, bonuses, bank promotions, insults and mobbing, production pressure, job security and anti-union barriers.
Within this harsh reality and under the severe conditions of the mine, we have consistently and practically defended the interests of both the miners and the people of Kınık. The Independent Mine Workers’ Union has become the focal point of struggle, the ground of resistance, a source of trust, and a deterrent force for workers and the entire population of the Soma–Kınık–Savaştepe–Kırkağaç basin against all these bosses, international monopolies, holdings and corporate power blocs. Today we deeply feel the people’s support with a strong sense of responsibility.
As of February last year, the workforce at Polyak A.Ş. was drastically reduced from nearly 2,900 workers to around 1,200 through mass layoffs. Throughout this period we held numerous meetings both with the company and with all relevant authorities in the region. During this time the yellow union Öz Maden-İş, which held formal authority at the workplace, adopted a corporate stance that avoided even informing workers, while we supervised the entire process in order to guarantee the rights of all workers and simultaneously prepared for struggle.
Ultimately, last December, the majority stake of the company was transferred through a share deal from Fina Holding—owned by the Özyeğin group—to the Chinese company Qitaihe. As a result of this transfer, workers’ rights and entitlements were once again placed under threat.
Immediately after the takeover, the Chinese company cut the budget allocated to occupational health and safety. It failed to pay workers’ wages for two months and blocked the payment of bank promotions. We live in a region where even the workers who survived the Soma Massacre—miners from Soma A.Ş. and Uyar Madencilik—had their severance rights seized through similar mechanisms, and where these rights could only be recovered years later through a law passed by the Turkish Parliament after persistent struggle led by our union. For this reason Polyak workers immediately realised that they too were being pushed into the same spiral: their severance and retroactive rights would be trapped in endless delays and legal obstacles.
It was under precisely these conditions that the Polyak Resistance began: in a situation where workers had been left unorganised through yellow unions, where employers disappeared behind fraudulent share transfers and legal barriers, and where administrative and political authorities advised workers to accept helplessness.
One night, with the decision of all three shifts, we stopped work, declaring:
“This mine, this basin belongs to us. We will not let our rights be stolen.”
The action that began with a work stoppage on 20 February continued on 25 February with a 17-kilometre march from the mine to the Kınık town square. The people of Kınık welcomed us with overwhelming support even before we entered the town. During meetings that day, a written commitment was given to the District Governor that wages would be paid on 27 February. However, we made it clear that we would not abandon our resistance until the payments were actually made.
When it became clear on 27 February that this promise had not been honoured, a meeting attended by all miners decided that if our demands were not met by 2 March, we would seize the mine in lieu of the unpaid entitlements of 1,243 workers.
When the demands were once again ignored, we did exactly what we had declared: on 2 March, despite the massive police deployment positioned around the mine like a company security force, we occupied the mine.
We showed that barricades cannot stop miners who work deep underground, below sea level, in the mountains. Water cannons cannot break our bodies; tear gas cannot break our will. Seeing that courage give confidence not only to the workers but also to the entire population fills us with pride.
And today we declare victory.
At this stage, the accumulated severance payments, notice compensations, 15-day bonuses, two months of unpaid wages, overtime payments, leave entitlements, coal allowances and all other labour claims of 1,243 Polyak workers have been secured. All of these entitlements—amounting to approximately 1 billion Turkish liras—have been deposited in the workers’ accounts without exception and without bargaining.
For workers who wish to leave, the conditions now exist for a free and dignified departure. For those who wish to continue working, the process for restarting production—following the slowdown caused by the mass layoffs—will proceed as follows: based on the inspection reports to be prepared by the relevant authorities, including MAPEG and the Chinese state institutions with responsibilities equivalent to MAPEG, the production status of the mine will be clarified. According to that determination, workers will return to work gradually in line with the lists prepared by our union based on individual preferences.
This entire process will be monitored and supervised jointly by the company management, the Kınık District Governorate, the Kınık Municipality and our union. In order to prevent any disruption, our General President, our Central Executive Board member, the Polyak Branch President and the Branch Secretary will coordinate with the workplace management and oversee the process.
Throughout the resistance, not only the legal entity Polyak A.Ş. but also all former and current shareholders were treated as interlocutors and called upon to take responsibility for resolving the issue. Ultimately, the former shareholder Özyeğin assumed the entire financial cost of the settlement. Our union will continue to play a constructive and facilitating role in ensuring that the agreed process proceeds smoothly in coordination with the Chinese Embassy, the Özyeğin side and the current shareholders.
With this victory, our claim of workers’ self-management has inspired hope not only among the people of Kınık but across the entire mining basin and among workers in other mines as well. If a company that fails to meet even the most basic legal requirements can claim to operate a mine—one of the most dangerous industries in the world—while ignoring the interests of workers, transporters, drivers and the entire population of Kınık, then our proposal of workers’ self-management is clearly a far more realistic and reasonable alternative.
For that reason we declare “VICTORY;” with a semicolon.
At the stage we have reached today, our union and the workers remain convinced that the Chinese company does not have the capacity to operate this mine properly, even if all labour entitlements have been paid. Therefore our union will both continue monitoring the implementation of the settlement and remain alert and prepared for new struggles. More importantly, together with all regional dynamics, we will continue the intellectual, technical and organisational preparation for the self-management of the mine.
We once again declare that we will continue preparing—with the same discipline—for a near future in which workers and the people can confront those in power at any moment in defence of their collective interests.
Just as victory has become ours, the mines, the warehouses, the fields, the shipyards, the post offices, the shops and the factories will all become ours.
Let today’s victory remind the millions whose eyes, ears and hearts are with us of one simple truth:
We are not slaves. We are not condemned to be ruled like this. We can march, we can seize, and we can win.
Throughout this process we thank all individuals and institutions that assumed responsibility for meeting our demands. And finally, we express our deepest gratitude to the people who stood with workers—from the moment we slammed our helmets to the ground and stopped work to the moment we raised our hands in victory—those who gave us a voice, welcomed us on the roads and gathered with us in town squares.
We respectfully bow before them.
We dedicate this victory to our elder brother, our living legend Çetin Uygur, who provided moral and intellectual guidance during the founding of our union and previous resistance struggles, and to the miners who created the self-management experience of Yeni Çeltek.
Long live the Polyak victory!
Those who work shall rule.
The Independent Mine Workers’ Union
Bağımsız Maden-İş
