Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The Vanishing 40,000

Arabian Business yesterday reported workers on the Burj Dubai were striking for the sixth day running. The 3,000 Arabtec-contracted laborers were refusing to leave their camps and work on the world's tallest building had ground to halt. This morning, AB has pulled the story, and there is no mention in any of the other local media. Strange, seeing as this is the biggest news story to hit one of the biggest industries in what Mastercard this week claimed to be the Middle East's center of commerce.
Locally, the
Kipp Report is still following the story, mostly from AP reports. It appears the strike action is far larger than even AB was prepared to admit: some 40,000 Arabtec workers are involved, and they're asking for an extra $55 a month, up from a current $109. To put that in context, the Burj's Armani residences, on sale last week, start at $2,500 per square foot.

2 comments:

Seabee said...

Today's reports are that the strike has been solved and the workers are back on the job - but no mention of which project it was!

19thfloordubai said...

Today's story: 'everyone happy, work on schedule, no more problems, please don't ask any more questions.'
It only takes the Arabtec line.