House of Paine

heartening news item seen thru chucky cheese glasses

here's to me

a wake up and shout 
          news story


pitched as.... 

blue blue sad but true 
oh oh
 what are we coming to ....

cause

 its liberal  nyt
   editors and reporters 
  see  only a mawkish  "Dickensian"  tale

 where i see

an  ever self evolving
   self organizing ultimately
             unstoppable
                     fight back 


"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 25 

— For Rajee Kumaran, 
 this was the city of dreams.

  after five years here, 
surviving in squalid conditions 
and barely making ends meet
 on less than $200 a month,
 Mr. Kumaran, 28,
says his dream has long since faded.

"I thought this was the land of opportunity
, but I was fooled," 

reporters lead



my lead buried by the times 

" hundreds of workers angered
 by low salaries and mistreatment
 rioted Tuesday night at the site
 of what is to become 
the world's tallest skyscraper"

" not only were they expressing 
the growing frustration
 of Asian migrants here,
 they offered a glimpse 
of an increasingly organized labor force"

 
now we get a blend of the two tales 

"Far from the high-rise towers 
and luxury hotels emblematic of Dubai, 
the workers turning this swath of desert
 into a modern metropolis 
live in a Dickensian world 
of cramped labor camps, 
low pay and increasing desperation "

"For years, workers like Mr. Kumaran 
have done whatever they could to get here,
 often paying thousands of dollars
 to unscrupulous recruiters 
for the chance to work 
at one of the hundreds of construction sites 
in the emirates" 

"Of the 1.5 million residents of Dubai,
 as many as a million are immigrants
 who have come here to work in some capacity,
 with the largest subgroup
 being construction workers,
 A vast majority of the immigrants 
come from the Indian subcontinent
 and the Philippines " 

 "....The construction workers' camps,
 have been set up ever deeper into  the desert. 
 adding as much as  two hours 
commute to the  job site every morning,
 in addition to the workers' 12-hour shifts "


-----------  ie
  16 hour  per day 6 day job weeks ---------------------


---------now a  sensationalizing dickensian "bi product " -----------

"A growing number have resorted to suicide 
rather than return home with empty pockets:
 last year, 84 South Asians committed suicide
 in Dubai"

---------  zeroing in on
        our template jobster --------------  

"Mr. Kumaran, earns 150 dollars a  month,
  as a laborer,
  he   sends home more then  half his earnings
  and lives  on the  rest  
                roughly $60 a month " 

---------- back to the   broader klass struggle  --------------

" Since last September,
 when 800 workers 
 staged a protest march
 down a main highway 
in the heart of the city 
 laborers have held at least 
eight major strikes 
to demand their rights
 and get their pay, 
which is often  withheld " 

" the mass action on Tuesday
 was the most significant
        of its kind.
 Hundreds of workers building
 the Burj Dubai skyscraper 
chased security guards and broke into offices,
 smashing computers, 
scattering files and wrecking cars 
and construction machines"



" When they returned
 to work the next day,
 demanding better pay 
and improved working conditions,
 thousands of laborers building
 an airport terminal
 across town also laid down their tools,
 demanding better conditions, too" 

"The workers also halted work
 on Thursday,
 until a settlement was negotiated"

------------- quoted commentary ----------------

"this is  a watershed moment
 in coordination and organization," 

---------  then a  quoted sketch 
  of the whole arc of fight back -----

 "It started with increasing numbers of strikes,
 and has now evolved into very organized
 and coordinated activities.
 If these grievances are not addressed quickly
 by the government 
they are sure to begin hurting 
the economic growth of the country" 

--- more back ground ---------------

" workers have few rights.
 Visa sponsors and employers typically confiscate
 their passports and residency permits
 when they sign on,
 restricting their freedom of movement
 and their ability to report abuse
Most pay money to recruiters 
to find work here,
 When they get here,
 few can leave the country without
 the permission of their employers,
 who can block them from working elsewhere
 in the country if they resign or are fired
Unionizing is forbidden
Denial of wages 
is the most common abuse 
of workers, 
as contracting companies 
typically wait 
to pay their workers 
until they themselves get paid
 In the worst cases,
 workers have been denied wages 
for more than 10 months, 
only to lose the entire salary 
when the contracting companies
 go bankrupt,
 leaving the men destitute 
and with few options 
 the sheer number of workers 
who have poured into the country
 over the past two years 
and inadequate staffing
 at the ministry 
make recourse to the government
 effectively useless
only 80 government inspectors 
oversee about 200,000 companies
  that employ migrant workers " 

" The  same inspectors
 also look at labor camps:
 of the 36 camps inspected
 from May through December last year,
 the ministry ranked 27 
well below government standards"

---------- back to dickens scale  ----------


"As he boards a bus 
to his construction site
 every morning but Friday
 Mr. Kumaran says he looks
 up at Dubai's skyline 
of gleaming high rises ..... 

"I wish the rich people would realize
 who is building these towers," 



 "I wish they could come 
and see how sad this life is." 

 thats the reporters final note

mines 
    out there at the job site

unreported
  but there for sure
 organizing
   to up the ante ....