adminISTANBUL. — Anger at Turkey’s government boiled over yesterday when thousands went on strike and police clashed with protesters after at least 282 workers died in one of the worst mining accidents in modern history.As hopes faded for scores more miners still trapped underground two days after the devastating blast, police fired tear gas and water cannon at around 20,000 anti-government protesters in the western city of Izmir.
Turkey’s four biggest unions called a one-day strike, saying workers’ lives were being jeopardised to cut costs, and demanding that those responsible for the collapse of the coal mine in the western town of Soma in Manisa province be brought to account.
“Hundreds of our workers have been left to die from the very beginning by being forced to work in cruel production processes to achieve maximum profits,” they said in a joint statement, calling on people to wear black.
Anger at the disaster has swept across Turkey, where mine explosions and cave-ins are a frequent occurrence.
In Izmir, around 100 kilometres south of Soma, the 61-year-old head of one of the main unions Kani Beko was hospitalised after violent clashes with riot police. — AFP.
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