It is a bitterly cold winter day in Tokat, central Anatolia. The thermometer is at -3 °C when Sunduz Akkan, a mother of three, wraps up and heads to the Sik Makas factory where she worked until October 2025. The plant, once a major local employer, has become a symbol of a sector in freefall.
Sik Makas’s roughly 1,700 workers stopped receiving paychecks in mid‑2025. On October 7 employees walked out; the following day about 1,000 received text messages informing them they had been fired. Since then Akkan and former colleagues have been camped at the factory gate, protesting in a solidarity tent to draw attention to unpaid wages and lost entitlements.
Their persistence brought partial wins. In January they finally received back pay and the company removed a termination designation known as “Code 22” — a catchall that had blocked eligibility for severance and unemployment benefits. Many ex‑workers are still fighting for severance pay. “I worked here for over three years,” Akkan says. “Now we’re being treated like beggars, even though we’re just asking for what we’re entitled to.”
Buse Kara, the group’s spokesperson and one of those dismissed, was briefly placed under house arrest after being accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, yet she returned to the protest line. Kara and other workers describe harsh conditions inside the factory: intense pressure to raise productivity, restricted toilet and prayer breaks, and limited access to medical care unless a worker collapsed. Sik Makas has denied these accusations, saying its practices comply with Turkish law and labor regulations.
Founded in 1939, Sik Makas ranks among Turkey’s 500 largest industrial firms and exports millions of denim items annually to brands including H&M, Jack & Jones, Levi’s, Only and Zara. But Turkey faces mounting economic pressure: runaway inflation and high interest rates have pushed producers to cut costs and shift operations abroad. Sik Makas, like many rivals, has moved some production to Egypt to take advantage of lower expenses.
Textiles and clothing have long been a pillar of Turkey’s economy, officially employing around 1.1 million people — a figure unions say omits many refugees, informal workers, women and children. Union leader Mehmet Turkmen of BIRTEK‑SEN says most jobs pay minimum wage, leaving family incomes below the poverty line; unpaid overtime and holiday shifts are widespread. Employers have relocated factories to rural districts to benefit from government incentives and higher local unemployment, which depresses wages further.
The sector’s decline is dramatic in aggregate: some 380,000 jobs lost over three years and 4,500 companies closing in 2025 alone. The most acute pressure comes from Turkey’s main market, the EU single market. According to the Istanbul Textile and Raw Materials Exporters Association (ITHIB), EU imports from China rose 21.8% between January and May 2025 and imports from Bangladesh rose 17.9% in the same period, while imports from Turkey fell 5.1%. Of the EU’s 10 largest suppliers, only Turkey and Tunisia lost market share. More than 60% of Turkish clothing production is destined for the EU; in 2025 Turkey’s share of the EU clothing and textile market fell below 5% for the first time in 30 years, and its global market share sank below 3% for the first time in 35 years.
Industry representatives warn that current government measures are insufficient. Seref Fayat of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) points to a grim outlook as long as policy choices continue to prop up the lira. President Erdogan has promised higher state subsidies — about 3,500 lira per worker (roughly €69) — along with measures to freeze layoffs and encourage hiring, but exporters and factory owners say the support is far short of what is needed.
“We have hit bottom. Our strength has run out,” says Mustafa Pasahan, vice president of the Istanbul Apparel Exporters Association (IHKIB). Jak Eskinazi, chair of ITHIB, is blunt: “We no longer expect anything from them. We’re just trying to save ourselves.”
The struggle at Sik Makas is a human-scale illustration of a larger collapse: workplaces emptied, families facing precarious futures, and an industry forced to confront a new global reality in which cheaper Chinese and Bangladeshi imports are crowding Turkish goods out of their historic markets. For thousands of workers like Akkan and Kara, the question now is whether Turkey’s clothing sector can adapt fast enough to preserve jobs and decent conditions, or whether the losses will continue to deepen.