Centers of Union in Lift Industry: Non-Governmental Organi̇zations

by Gülay Pala

Non-governmental organizations in the lift industry are communities that work together to improve the safety of lifts, their compliance with standards, quality and regulations and increase the safety of professionals and users in the industry.

With the increase in the number of multi-story buildings in our country, lift companies were increasingly established for the manufacturing of lifts, and they saw the necessity to be organized to seek their rights more easily, solve common problems and act together. This necessity brought along the first association established in 1972.  

This challenge has continued with more than 25 associations being established in several regions of our country over years — and still continue operating. 

These associations came together with a vision that uniting their power would be more beneficial, and they first established a platform, then the Elevator Industrialists Federation, in 2023. 

I have been working as a manager at our federation since its establishment and have observed that the industry’s perspective on non-governmental organizations has changed. It is obvious that non-governmental organizations are more widely adopted with the studies carried out, projects completed and successes to pave the way for the industry achieved. 

In recent years, the standards, regulations and communiques that were implemented to improve the industry and ensure safe lift manufacturing have made companies take this business more seriously. They also have observed that accessing information easily will be advantageous in terms of competition and increase their gains. They have seen that the easiest way to do this is to become a member of an association. 

On the other hand, contributing to non-governmental organizations has become difficult because there are numerous companies operating in dangerous business and are not incorporated, or they are even backdoor companies. Company owners or employees (the volunteers) that are members of the associations are not able to take part in the work carried out by the association due to insufficient time and opportunity. Many associations continue to work with board members and need to increase their membership numbers and income to be able to carry out more activities for the benefit of their members. They should know that if they ensure that all of their colleagues in the city become members, the quality and number of safe lifts and their earnings will also increase.

In our industry, there are, unfortunately, show-only associations that are united and established but are not able to strive for the same purpose and cannot continue operating due to personal greed or prioritizing the association’s commercial activities.

In our industry, where the increased exports moved ahead of the imports, domestic lift companies, which compete with both themselves and other global companies, have to be united and walk toward the same goal in order to survive, become stronger and gain their earned income. The easiest channels to ensure this unity and solidarity are non-governmental organizations.

For this reason, companies should become members of association in their cities and make these associations operate more actively.