Getting organized?
In case you missed this story from Dubai:
A violent protest by over 5,000 workers over alleged mistreatment by their supervisors, arbitrary salary deductions, non-payment of overtime, and lack of medical facilities at the worksite has seriously disrupted the project of two prestigious construction project in Dubai — the Burj Dubai and the new terminal of Dubai International Airport.
The protest by employees of Al Naboodah Laing O’Rourke, which began on Tuesday evening, turned violent as infuriated workers damaged nearly two dozen company vehicles, smashed office property at the Burj Dubai project site, and destroyed several machines and official documents. The agitation lasted till late last morning and has resulted in an estimated combined loss of about 3.5 million Dirhams, according to Lieutenant Colonel Rashid Bakheet, member of the Permanent Committee of Labour Affairs in Dubai. (Continued)
Now this certainly isn’t the first time that such events have occurred. Protests by migrant workers are increasingly common in Dubai, and have also been seen elsewhere in the Gulf. What I find interesting about this particular case is this:
The stoppage of work at the Burj Dubai project, which involves the construction of the world’s tallest building, sparked a sympathy strike by another batch of about 2,500 of their colleagues at the Dubai International Airport’s new terminal project site.
It seems that there may be some coordination and solidarity between workers on different work sites. I wonder on what level and to what extent this is taking place. It will be interesting to see if anything similar happens in the future, and how the employers and authorities will respond to any coordinated action.
Also, you might recall that workers at Dubai’s new airport terminal, who are also employees of Al Naboodah Laing, went on strike in September 2004.
If any of you readers are in Dubai maybe you could leave a comment to tell us if there is more context to what is taking place on the ground. In the meanwhile here is how it was reported in the international press: Guardian, IHT.
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:42 pm
It’s not surprising they protested. On the whole, Asian workers are
treated very badly by their Gulf hosts.
This is quite funny. Dubai, which sees itself as the progressive shining beacon of the Arab world, can be brought to a standstill by a few thousand angry Asian labourers.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Although I know these strikes won’t have immediate outcomes for the people brave enough to carry them out but my gut reaction to reading the headline on the GDN front page this morning was still - WOOOO HOOOOO!
Mistreated workers all over the region need to come together to stand up and say they will not let employers continue to walk all over them. The fattenened Gulf elite got obscenely rich over the past few decades by cheating countless nameless, faceless workers out of human wages. More actions like these will atleast momentarily clear the cigar-smoke clouding their eyes and ears, force them to forget the expensive prostitute working on them and have them actually consider abandoning their practice of slavery even if it’s only motivated by worry that they won’t be able to make payments on a newly procured Hummer or the house in Marbella if the business endures losses.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:31 pm
This riot was hardly a surprise. In general, the Gulf states treat Asian manual labourers like… like shit.
Funny isn’t it. Dubai which sees itself as the most modern and economically developed Arab country, has its most high profile mega-project brought to its knees by a couple of thousand rioting workers.
Dubai’s malls and hotels might be the fanciest in the Middle East, but the Emirates attitude towards its Asian workers is identical to the rest of the Gulf: it sucks.
March 23rd, 2006 at 7:33 pm
This riot was hardly a surprise. In general, the Gulf states treat Asian manual labourers like… like shit.
Funny. Dubai which sees itself as the most modern and economically developed Arab country, has its most high profile mega-project brought to its knees by a couple of thousand rioting workers.
Dubai’s malls and hotels might be the fanciest in the Middle East, but the Emirates attitude towards its Asian workers is identical to the rest of the Gulf: it sucks.
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Salam
I hate it when the poor workers are mistreated!!
I spent all of my summer in UAE. The poor workers used to start work before sunrise and spend the whole night working!!
I was shocked to read in BBCNews.com that these workers who are categorized as “unskilled workers” are paid $4 a day..!
God!!
March 25th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
[...] Chanad Bahraini meanwhile reports an escalating situation even closer to our shores, highlighting a workers’ revolution taking Dubai by storm, which could very well spill over to other countries in the region, where poor foreign workers are not treated with justice all the time. [...]
October 1st, 2006 at 5:43 pm
This riot was hardly a surprise. In general, the Gulf states treat Asian manual labourers like… like shit.
Funny isn’t it. Dubai which sees itself as the most modern and economically developed Arab country, has its most high profile mega-project brought to its knees by a couple of thousand rioting workers.
Dubai’s malls and hotels might be the fanciest in the Middle East, but the Emirates attitude towards its Asian workers is identical to the rest of the Gulf: it sucks.
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