ICEM mourns death of Turkish Mines Leader, Maden-İş President Ekrem Fedai

One of the ICEM’s long-standing mining union affiliates, Türkiye Maden-İş, lost its president last week, and the entire family of ICEM mourns his passing. Ekrem Fedai had been valiantly fighting lung cancer for some time, but the disease claimed his life on 26 June. He was 58.

Brother Fedai was a substitute member of the ICEM Executive Committee. He started his trade union career in the state-owned lignite company in the city of Tavşanli, and in 1986 was first elected as regional secretary-treasurer of the union in that city. He won election as regional chairman in 1996, and then was elected to the post of Secretary of Collective Bargaining and Legal Affairs for Maden-İş at union headquarters in Ankara. At an extraordinary congress in 2008, he was unanimously elected President of Maden-İş.

In a letter to Maden-İş Vice President Murat Bekem today, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda, “We know his many contributions to your union and his many achievements across Turkey on behalf of miners.” The ICEM extends its condolences to Ekrem Fedai’s family and to all the union members of Türkiye Maden-İş. (29 June 2009)