[Onthebarricades] UAE: Mass strikes, migrant worker unrest

[Andy]

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200710281617.htm

Workers protest turn violent in Dubai
Dubai (PTI): Hundreds of labourers, including Indians, demanding a salary 
hike and better working conditions, staged a violent protest outside their 
labour camp near here.
The police rushed to the spot, brought the situation under control and 
persuaded the labourers to return to their labour camp, a media report said 
on Sunday.
However, a number of vehicles were damaged during the demonstration which 
also disrupted traffic in the vicinity for a while. The police later 
cordoned off the labour camp area as a precautionary measure, the report 
said.
UAE Minister of Labour Ali bin Abdullah Al Kaabi warned that his ministry 
would not hesitate in deporting the workers who had vandalised the vehicles 
including some police vehicles and public properties.
"The ministry will not hesitate in taking necessary measures to deport 
whatever numbers of workers found responsible for such acts. We will not be 
lenient towards whoever tampers with the security of the state and safety of 
residents," he said.
Humeid bin Demas, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour (MoL), 
said the labourers had "breached their contractual obligations" by resorting 
to such a protest.
"The workers have been given time till on Sunday to resume their duties. 
Refusal to do so may lead to a cancellation of their labour permits and a 
life ban on entry to the UAE," said Demas.
"Our monthly salary is a mere Dh600. What we would like is that this is 
raised to Dh1,000 and in case of qualified technicians to Dh1,200. But 
despite repeated requests, the company management has not responded 
favourably," two of the workers told Khaleej Times.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200710291408.htm

UAE to deport workers involved in violent protest
Dubai (PTI): Labour permits of hundreds of workers, including many Indians, 
involved in Saturday's violent protest outside the Jebel Ali Labour Camp 
have been cancelled and a life ban put on their entry to the UAE.
The UAE Ministry of Labour have cancelled their permits and the labourers 
are expected to be deported, a report said on Monday.
More than 4,000 construction workers were involved in the protest outside 
their labour camp.
The majority of the workers are form India, an Indian official said without 
giving any numbers.
The protesting labourers were demanding higher salary and better working 
conditions.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=13436

Strike wave rocks the UAE's dictators
A new mood of militancy by migrant construction workers has emerged in the 
UAE, democracy activist Issam Hambouz tells Simon Assaf
Thousands of construction workers walked out on strike in the United Arab 
Emirates (UAE) last Saturday. The labourers, mainly from South Asia, were 
attacked by police as they protested for higher wages.
They responded by occupying a building and pelting police cars with stones. 
The state rounded up workers and deported them.
Strikes have now become commonplace in a country where unions are banned and 
the overwhelmingly migrant workforce faces repression and exploitation.
Oil dollars have made the UAE, a key US ally, a haven for the global rich, 
where huge glittering seven star hotels, indoor snow parks and mega building 
projects have sprouted from the sands.
Behind the UAE's image as a model of the success of the "free market" lies 
an ugly system.
Issam Hambouz is a democracy activist from the UAE. He told Socialist 
Worker, "The UAE is made up of seven states connected through a federal 
union.
"Each state is ruled by a tribal family that owes their power to an alliance 
with the British Empire in the early 19th century.
"They control the internal affairs of their kingdom.
"All the emirates, Abu Dhabi in particular, jointly manipulate foreign 
affairs."
These families have used oil wealth to fund prestigious projects. Some 89 
percent of the UAE's population are labourers, mainly drawn from across 
Asia, who build these projects.
The ruling families repress political dissent, with even relatively 
privileged citizens banned from forming political parties, associations or 
trade unions.
Hambouz said, "However, there are a number of individuals who are attempting 
to make a positive change through projects like the Human Rights 
Associations.
Unwanted
"Migrant workers are trying to form unofficial unions, but most of their 
attempts have been met with the deportation of 'unwanted people'."
The average monthly salary in the UAE is £1,340. The majority of 
construction workers take home £63 a month, of which £30 is deducted for 
food, and monthly deductions for their work visa.
They often find themselves deported at the end of their contracts without 
receiving their final pay cheque.
Asian labourers have been at the heart of the construction industry in the 
Gulf states since the 1970s. However, the
breakneck economic boom is giving rise to a new mood.
Thousands of workers have taken to the streets in a wave of unprecedented 
protests this year.
In March and August, workers marched through the glittering Sheikh Zayed 
street in Dubai in protest at a decision to deduct half their wages for 
meals. Their protest highlighted the growing anger in the shanty towns and 
slums on the fringes of the major cities.
Hambouz said, "In September a massive fire swept through the Jebali Ali camp 
for foreign labourers outside the capital. The fire destroyed the 
possessions of 1,500 labourers and sparked protests."
Shortly after this, thousands of labourers struck against low wages. The 
strikers destroyed company buses and blocked the main roads.
Hambouz said, "After the riot, 180 labourers who worked on government 
projects were thrown out of the country without receiving pay due to them. 
The government said the workers came into the country illegally.
"In April, three labourers at a construction company died from various 
illnesses related to their substandard living conditions.
"Later that month 200 labourers from the Marhaba Marina company went on 
strike after they were not paid for four months.
"In June, one municipality banned buses ferrying workers from entering 
certain areas.
Prohibits
"The labourers were forced to walk long distances from their camps to 
construction sites. In one month two died and 82 were made sick by heat 
exhaustion."
Earlier this year the government was forced to pass a law that prohibits 
working under the noon sun during July and August.
There are growing calls for change among UAE nationals. This summer, school 
teachers threatened to strike to demand higher wages.
Last month the UAE passed an amnesty law allowing workers who overstayed 
their visas the right to go home with their earnings.
Over 300,000 left, leaving the building sites empty and delaying prestigious 
construction projects such as the Burj Dubai - set to be the world's tallest 
building.
The government has been unable to break the momentum of the struggle.
The strike last Saturday is the latest manifestation of the new mood of 
militancy.

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/502777-uae-draws-line-in-sand-over-worker-unrest?ln=en

UAE draws line in sand over worker unrest
by Safura Rahimi on Monday, 29 October 2007

Construction workers in Dubai are increasingly deciding to voice their 
concerns over pay and conditions through protests. (Getty Images)
The UAE Ministry of Labour is to deport construction workers involved in a 
violent protest over the weekend as the government looks to draw a line in 
the sand over public demonstrations by low-paid labourers over pay and 
conditions.

Employees of an unnamed contracting company took to the streets in demand of 
better pay, housing and transport services in the early hours of Saturday 
morning.

The demonstration turned violent when police tried to remove the workers 
after they blocked Jebel Ali Industrial Road, with some of the protestors 
hurling stones at police and passing motorists.
The workers - currently in custody - are having their visas revoked and face 
a lifetime ban from working in the country, a ministry official said, quoted 
UAE daily Gulf News on Monday.

The majority of labourers facing deportation are reportedly of Asian origin.

The move to deport the workers follows a similar incident in August when 
around 24 construction workers who had protested for a pay rise were 
deported for refusing to return to work.

According to reports, the group was part of 500 construction workers 
protesting at their labour camp in demand of a 300 dirham pay rise in late 
July.

The number of protests by low-paid labourers over pay and conditions has 
been steadily growing and the ministry's announcement is being seen as a 
clear message that the sort of protests witnessed on Saturday will not be 
tolerated.

The Emirates construction boom is currently facing a number of challenges 
such as skills shortages and the rising cost of raw materials, and the 
government and developers will not want to add worker unrest to that list.

http://www.nowpublic.com/people/uae-initiates-deportation-workers-after-violent-protest

UAE initiates deportation of workers after violent protest
by hussain | November 2, 2007 at 09:16 am | 104 views | 2 comments

As many as 44 Pakistanis are among 155 expatriate construction workers from 
the Indian Subcontinent to be deported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 
a few days for their involvement in violent protest last week.

"The UAE government has started deportation of Pakistani, Indian and 
Bangladeshi workers of a construction company for observing strike. The 
process to deport 44 Pakistanis, 91 Indians and 20 Bangladeshi workers of a 
construction company in Dubai for involvement in violent protest," 
diplomatic sources in the Pakistan capital said Friday.

"The deportation process is going to be completed next week," said the 
sources, seeking anonymity.

A massive strike broke out in the UAE wherein more than 40,000 workers from 
various Asian countries working with a leading construction company 
abstained from work paralysing construction work at various sites in Dubai.

The demands of workers include increase in wages, improvement of basic 
facilities in labour camps, abolition of fines, better transport system and 
release of 400 workers detained by Dubai Police for marching on the road.
The strike came a day after the UAE government decided to deport 159 workers 
who were involved in the violent protest in front of a labour camp in Jebel 
Ali on October 27.

http://www.nosweat.org.uk/node/634

Migrant workers strike in Dubai

Strike rages on at world's tallest tower in Dubai
1 day ago
DUBAI (AFP) - Thousands of migrant builders in Dubai remained on strike on 
Wednesday, including many at the world's tallest tower, the emirate's 
construction giant Arabtec acknowledged.
"The situation has not changed and the workers are still on strike," Arabtec 
spokesman Ammar Tuqan told AFP when asked about the status of the firm's 
34,000 staff.
He declined to go into further details but told the Dubai state-owned daily 
Emarat Al-Youm that only "around 1,500 Arabtec staff resumed work on Tuesday 
after a strike now running for nearly two weeks".
The company is "trying to persuade other workers to return to their jobs," 
Tuqan added.
The paper said that the "whole" of the company's workforce had joined the 
action for better wages and working conditions.
Burj Dubai is still under construction but it overtook Taiwan's Taipei 101 
tower as the world's tallest building when it reached 512 metres (1,533 
feet) in June. Its eventual height remains a closely guarded secret.
The skyscraper is being built by a consortium involving Arabtec, Samsung of 
South Korea and Besix of Belgium.
The booming Gulf city of state of Dubai was hit by a rash of strikes by 
migrant workers that spread to several construction sites late last month.
Some 4,500 migrant workers, most of them Indian, downed tools in a rare 
resort to industrial action in the Gulf emirate where strike action is 
outlawed and trade unions are illegal.
"Some workers are adopting a hardline position demanding an immediate 
increase in wages," complained Tuqan.
He said the firm was ready to "examine the question at a later date but on 
condition that staff first returned to work."
Arabtec staff, who are paid an average of 700 dirhams (190 dollars) a month, 
are demanding an increase of 500 dirhams (136 dollars).
The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday it will "urgently" review wages of 
workers in the construction sector following the wave of strikes.
The labour ministry requires employers to "pay the wages of workers in full 
and without any cuts for whatever reason," in line with the agreed work 
contracts, senior ministry official Humaid bin Deemas said.
Burj Dubai is no stranger to industrial action. In March last year, 2,500 
labourers rioted at the construction site.
The incident prompted the New York-based Human Rights Watch to issue a 
statement calling on the UAE government to "end abusive labour practices" 
and describing working conditions as "less than human."
The authorities in the United Arab Emirates had hailed an end to the strike 
at Burj Dubai on November 1, saying that staff had agreed to resume work 
after the intervention of a delegation from the labour ministry, the Dubai 
police and the Indian consulate.
An estimated 700,000 Asians, mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, 
work as construction workers in the UAE, an oil-rich Gulf country 
experiencing an economic boom where only some 20 percent of the four million 
population have citizenship.