Are bosses more powerful than the state?

Are bosses more powerful than the state?

WE HAVE GIVEN YOU THE AUTHORITY, SOLVE IT!

Workers speaking during the events protested against the police intervention and the Ministry of Labour and Energy. “We have nowhere else to go. We have no other chance. Let the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality dig 150 graves here. There is no turning back. There are workers who have come here from Kütahya to claim their rights. We have given them the authority. Those in power must solve this problem! “We’re not begging anyone. They have to solve this,” said a worker, banging his hardhat on the ground for minutes on end.

Another worker asked, “Is Sebahattin Yıldız bigger than the state? Where is justice? Where are the ministers? Are they waiting for people to kill each other? Is this company bigger than the Ministry of Energy, bigger than the Ministry of Labour? Where is justice, where?”

NOT A STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS, BUT A STRUGGLE FOR DIGNITY

Another worker stated that the sole reason for their presence in Ankara was not a struggle for rights, but a struggle for dignity.

‘We are addressing those who tell us to ‘be patient’, those who say ‘the economy is bad’, and those who ignore our demands: if the bread on the worker’s table is shrinking whilst someone else’s profits are breaking records, then there is a great injustice here,’ he said.

Emphasising that workers are the very people who produce the country’s wealth and keep its wheels turning, the worker added: “Yet we see that those who disregard the power we derive from production wish to condemn us to poverty wages. We will never remain silent in the face of the seizure of our rights, the imposition of anti-union measures, and workplace fatalities.

Our demands are clear: a living wage, safe working conditions, and respect for our trade union rights,‘ the worker emphasised, underlining that no one has the power to break the workers’ unity, and concluded with the slogan, ’United we will win.”

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THE HOME SECRETARY ANNOUNCED: THE MINERS PROTESTING IN ANKARA WILL BE PAID WHAT THEY ARE OWED

The Home Secretary Mustafa Çiftçi made a statement regarding the mining workers who had marched to Ankara and begun a hunger strike after failing to receive their wages for months from Doruk Madencilik, a subsidiary of SSS Yıldızlar Holding, whose owner is a member of the AKP. Çiftçi claimed that the wages of the mining workers, who had been subjected to a harsh police intervention, would be paid today.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Patron devletten daha mı büyük?, published in BirGün newspaper on April 28, 2026.