Dubai Workers Deported For Demanding $54 A Month Raise

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/Channels/Story.aspx?ID=1353696

1/27/2011

Dubai is a city defined by its expensive living and eclectic ambition, but it isn’t as well known for it’s willingness to let worker abuses slide. Jesse Russell reports:

Construction workers in Dubai received a hard lesson in the lack of labor rights in the United Arab Emirates this week. An estimated 5000 Arabtec construction workers went on strike in mid-January to demand a pay increase that would amount to $54 extra U.S. dollars a month. Construction workers, who are typically brought in from South Asia, earn on average the equivalent of $190 to $220 per month. Arabtec Holding is the largest construction company in Dubai and the workers are used for everything from building the skyscraper that are increasingly springing up on the city’s skyline to hotels. Public labor unrest is a rarity in the Emirates because workers often fear they’ll be deported or arrested. In this case 50 of the workers are being sent packing due to their willingness to demand better wages in a country that has become known for its rampant excess.

[arcane1]

1. I say we sell Dubai control over all U.S. ports

:sarcasm: <----- as if I really needed it

[valerief]

2. Arabtec Holding for president! nt

[DBoon]

3. Dubai - where Halliburton relocated its corporate HQ

nt