Türkiye: Free jailed union leaders now

In partnership with the Shipbuilding and Maritime, Warehousing and Storage Workers Union (DİSK/LİMTER-İŞ). Founded in 1976, LİMTER-İŞ, a member of DİSK, operates in the shipbuilding and maritime transport, warehousing and storage sector.

The Shipbuilding and Maritime, Warehousing and Storage Workers’ Union (DİSK/LİMTER-İŞ) is a member of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK). Its President İleri Devrim Yurtsever, General Secretary Beycan Taşkıran, Executive Board Member Kenan Hesas and former executives Kanber Saygılı, Aydın Kılıçdere and Hakkı Demiral were arrested on 5 and 6 February 2026. These arrests are not merely a judicial process targeting individuals, but an attempt to exert pressure on workers fighting for their rights through organising. Demanding secure employment, a decent living and trade union rights, and opposing unpaid wages, workplace murders and precarity is not a crime. Trade unionists have been arrested because they are the voice of the workers, have spoken out against working conditions in the shipyards and have led the struggle for organising. Trade union activity is a constitutional right and cannot be criminalised.

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