Yıldırım Koç

Yıldırım Koç is a Turkish economist and writer known for his academic and unionist work on labor history, trade unionism, and social policy.

Yıldırım Koç (Samsun, 1951—) studied at Talas American Middle School and Robert College. He graduated from METU Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Department of Economics and Statistics in 1973. He completed his master's in social policy at Ankara University - Faculty of Political Sciences.

In 1974, he was among the founders and managers of the Association of All Economists (TİB); served as the responsible editor of the monthly bulletin and authored many brochures.

Between 1975-1978, he worked as a collective agreement and training expert in DİSK Maden-İş, Yeraltı Maden-İş, and Tek Eğitim Büro-İş unions. From 1980 to 1983, he served as an assistant at METU Business Administration Department teaching wage and personnel management. He was on editorial boards of many journals and book series.

Since 1998, he has been teaching labor-employer relations history and current issues at METU Economics Department as a part-time lecturer.

From 1985 to 2008, he headed the Education Department of the Turkish Road Workers' Union. Between 1993–2003, he served as a senior advisor to Türk-İş and represented Turkish workers at the ILO, ICFTU, and ETUC. He was also a substitute member of ETUC Executive Board and resigned from Türk-İş in September 2003.

Since 2021, he has been director of the Tekgıda-İş Union Academy.

He also translated books between 1974–1986.

His articles have appeared in numerous journals including METU Development Journal, Saçak, Zemin, Gün, Demokrat Ekonomist, Science and Art Journal, and many others.

Selected books: “History of the Turkish Working Class: From the Ottoman Empire to 2020”, “History of International Unionism”, “Creating Heaven on Earth”, “The Story of Social Democracy”, “Atatürk and Socialism”.

Books published by our publishing house: “History of DİSK”, “History of KESK”, “European Working Classes”, “Correct-Incorrect Chart”.