Extended Summary

In addition to being Turkey’s first printing factory, the Sümerbank Nazilli Basma Factory is one of the places where the first experiences of labourisation and industrialisation took place. The Nazilli Basma Factory, together with the Kayseri Cloth Factory, was established with the financial and technical support received from the Soviet Union within the framework of the First Five-Year Industrial Plan (Aykaç, 2021:95). The factory appears as a model in which almost all of the development policies of the early Republican period were realised. In addition to being an economic model since its establishment, the Nazilli Basma Factory has also been effective in social development in the region. In addition, with the establishment of the factory, an effective fight against malaria, which was widespread in the region, was realised. Due to the intensity of the effects of the disease especially on the factory workers, the factory could not work at full capacity most of the time, especially many of the looms remained empty and the single shift system was in effect in the weaving department for a long time. Due to the fear caused by the disease, the perception that ‘whoever enters the factory will get sick’ was formed and the factory had problems in finding permanent workers for a long time. In addition to all these, the low number of houses in a small city like Nazilli increased the cost of living and made the working and living conditions of the workers difficult. For these reasons, workers did not see the factory as a place of livelihood and left very often. In order to keep the workers, the factory managers, on the other hand, tried not to disrupt production and to create a permanent labour force by introducing various social policy instruments. The most important of these policies were increasing wages, extending seniority incentive premiums and providing free meals and bread.

In this study, the wages of workers at the Sümerbank Nazilli Basma Factory between 1937 and 1950 are discussed. While discussing workers‘ wages, we also tried to compare them with other Sümerbank factories. While making these evaluations and comparisons, the most important sources of the period, especially the reports of the General Audit Committee and the workers’ registry files in the factory, were used. The workers’ registry files in the factory archive are also very important in terms of labour history studies. It should be noted that these registry files are waiting to be examined in the archive of the factory.

Finally, it should be noted that Bigat (2017), İnsel (1996), Meydan (2024), Aykaç (2021), Aydemir (2004) and some other studies emphasise the privileged status of the workers in Sümerbank and its factories, referring to the modernisation emphasis of the new Republic and its rulers and stating that the workers also had modern and fundamental rights. However, the picture we have encountered in this study points to the opposite. It is understood that this was not the case at all, especially in factories during the war. Contrary to their privileged position, it was observed that workers lacked basic rights and opportunities, and that they were oppressed by factory managers and administrators because they could not organise themselves. In the face of the inflation experienced during the war, it was observed that workers worked and lived in very poor conditions. For example, in the Sümerbank Nazilli Basma Factory between 1937 and 1945, workers received a daily wage of 60-80 kurus, while in the same years, workers in the Istanbul Mensucat industry received a daily wage of 120-150 kurus. Even this situation shows us that the workers were not very privileged. Similarly, it is known that the number of workers benefiting from the factory lodgings was quite low. In 1945, the number of those who were housed in wards, pavilions and houses at the Nazilli Factory was 616 in total. In the same year, the number of workers employed in the factory was 3.278, and the rate of those who were housed was 18,78%.