laborart

Randa

Page history last edited by Randa 1 yr ago

Questions About Workers

1. How many hours do they work weekly?

2. Why aren’t they working in their home countries?

3. Where do they live?

4. Who do they live with?

5. What is the average age of a worker?

1. The answer to this question could be good material for a poem because it could be compared to how many hours “we” work weekly. For instance, if a worker works 70 hours a week, that could be a good fact to call unfair in a poem

2. The answer to this question will make for good material for a poem because it explains the whole reason for their situation. A whole poem could be based solely on this question.

3. The answer to this question could be good material for a poem because their living conditions could be compared to “ours”, and like number one, be a good fact to call unfair in a poem.

4. The answer to this question is an extension to number three, and could be good material for a poem because again who they live with could be compared to who “we” live with.

5. The answer to this question could be good material for a poem because the average age of a worker could be compared to “our” lives at that age. For example, if the average age of a worker is 22, then they could be compared to an upper-class person at age 22 that is most likely in college rather than working a low-paying job like this.

Steps to Prove It

1. List possible resources

Al Jazeera, Blood Sweat and Tears Blood, Sweat and Tears is a documentary about workers in the Gulf

US Library of Congress- Labor in Qatar Statistical information and history about Qatar labor

Qatar Sucks Blog-like "news" posts about workers in Qatar

Qatar Labor Laws Lists all of the labor laws in Qatar

High Rises and Low Wages: Expatriate Labor in Gulf Arab States Statistics on Dubai laborers

UAE Workers Rights in the UAE Working towards workers' rights in the UAE

Emirates Making Peace with Migrant Workers An article about labor in Dubai

Building Towers, Cheating Workers A long report about migrant workers in the UAE

2. Explain how or why each resource may be reliable

Al Jazeera, Blood Sweat and Tears Blood, Sweat and Tears is a documentary that seems to have good information. In my opinion, Al Jazeera is a highly reliable news source, and this documentary makes me believe this even more. Al Jazeera is based in Qatar, so when it makes a documentary that portrays Qatar and its surrounding countries negatively, you can say that Al Jazeera is reliable.

history about Qatar Labor

US Library of Congress- Labor in Qatar At first I thought maybe the US Library of Congress isn't the best place for information about Qatar. However, it has a lot of history, and after comparing its information to my other sources, I have deemed it reliable.

Qatar Sucks Although some of its articles cite their sources, "Qatar Sucks" is not a reliable resource. Every article is some type of story about violent Qataris. There is no author of the website, and although each article cites a source, how do we know they really used that source?

Qatar Labor Laws I think the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Washington, DC is a reliable resource, because first of all, it is not some opinionated website like the one above. I trust this website because it is a government website.

High Rises and Low Wages: Expatriate Labor in Gulf Arab States First of all, to get to this website you must web search it first, because it requires a password. I think this source is reliable because after searching the author, I have discovered something. He has published a book on this topic, so I am assuming the book is not full of false information.

UAE Workers Rights in the UAE This website doesn't have too much information, but I think it is somewhat reliable. Its statistics have sources cited, but its stories do not. Still, there are similar stories on other websites, which makes this website more credible.

Emirates Making Peace with Migrant Workers The International Herald Tribune is a world renowned newspaper that started in the 1800s. This piece of information leads me to believe that IHT is reliable.

Building Towers, Cheating Workers I consider this report to be a highly reliable source for one main reason. It has over 100 sources cited.

3. Choose the best resources

Al Jazeera, Blood Sweat and Tears

US Library of Congress- Labor in Qatar

High Rises and Low Wages: Expatriate Labor in Gulf Arab States

Emirates Making Peace with Migrant Workers

Building Towers, Cheating Workers

4. Question why you didn't choose the remaining resources

Qatar Sucks I didn't use "Qatar Sucks" because in my opinion it is biased. To me it seems to be a website for people to attack Qatar and its people.

Qatar Labor Laws Although I think this website is a reliable resource, I realized that for my poem, I don't need the type of information that this site provides.

UAE Workers Rights in the UAE I didn't use this website because it had virtually no information. The little information that it does have is not very useful anyways.

5. List the information from each resource

Al Jazeera, Blood Sweat and Tears

10 million laborers in the Gulf
passports taken by employers
labor camps on outskirts of cities
$5-$7 wage per day

left at age 22
Hopes- wanted to earn more, previously educated, saw Gulf as best place for $
Promised $185 per month, but sometimes wage isn’t paid
109 suicides by Indian workers in the UAE
$1200 in debt for plane ticket, this practice is illegal
AMBE imports laborers
$1600 is the standard charge (company makes a profit)
Companies don’t keep death records

US Library of Congress- Labor in Qatar

Early 1950s- 3,000 slaves from Africa in Qatar (oil industry)
250 slaves working for Petroleum Development turned over 80-95% of wage to owners
Wage from less than one rupee to 4 rupees (1940s and 1950s)
7 day weeks w/one day off per month

High Rises and Low Wages: Expatriate Labor in Gulf Arab States

Burj Dubai workers- $4 a day, only $7.60 for skilled carpenters
Money is deducted if time is taken to pray or use the bathroom
No minimum wage
Domestic workers salary- $109 per month, construction workers- $164 per month
Labor camps- lack of electricity, potable water, adequate cooking and bathing facilities
No existing workers unions
75% of pop. Expatriate workers in Qatar

Emirates Making Peace with Migrant Workers

12 or more men per room
$1 an hour
One million construction workers in Dubai
Regulators are enforcing midday breaks, better health benefits and living conditions, and making employers pay workers
85% of pop. Expatriate workers in UAE. 99% of private workforce
24 yr old worker promised $225, twice what he earned in pakistan
2 coworkers killed, 2 injured (job more dangerous than expected)
Owner stopped paying the workers, so 400 of them walked off the job
Kaabi Labor Ministry backed the workers- restored camp facilities and paid back some of wages, helped workers find new jobs
4.5 out of the 5.3 million of UAE are foreigners, 2/3 of foreigners are south asian, including most of the 1.2 million construction workers
6 day work weeks
Sonapur- camp on outskirts of dubai, houses 50,000 workers
Thousands of heat exhaustion cases each month
37 year old worker has kids back in home country
Rampage near Burj Dubai, Dubai accused of cheating workers- needs to bring up labor standards
Kaabi, minister of labour in UAE- created summer sun breaks 12:30-3:00, increased number of inspectors from 100-1000, and publicly punished companies that fail to pay workers
After workers form Al Hamed Development and Construction blocked traffic in Dubai, Kaabi ordered company to pay 2 mill in fines, and temporarily froze company’s ability to hire new workers
Unions off-limits, what if india wanted all of their workers back? Then everything would shut down (airports, streets, contruction)
Many workers face worse hardships and lower pays in their home countries
Worker- 40 yrs has been working for 18 yrs, makes $250 a month more than twice what he made in india. Built a house, gave sister $2500 dowry to marry, sent children to private English speaking school

Building Towers, Cheating Workers

95 percent of the workforce in the UAE are foreigners

2005- 2,738,000 migrant workers (UAE). The 20 percent of migrant workers who are construction workers are illiterate South Asian men from poor rural areas

Average income of worker- $175, GDP per capita in UAE- $2,106 (per month)

Government refused to allow workers to form unions or bargain with employers

“The plight of migrant construction workers begins in their home countries, where they pay local recruitment agencies exorbitant fees (in the range of $2,000-$3,000) to arrange for their employment contract, obtain an employment visa for the UAE, and purchase their air travel. Typically, they take loans, either directly from the recruitment agents or from a third party, to pay for these fees. Coming up with the monthly repayment becomes the prime focus of the workers, who devote most of their pay during their first two years of employment to servicing the loans. When construction firms immediately withhold a worker’s first two months of wages—which is apparently so common that it is said to be a “custom”—the worker almost immediately falls into arrears on his debt, and additional charges start to accrue. Workers continue in their jobs even when faced with employers who fail to pay wages for much longer periods of time; the only practical alternative open to them is to quit their jobs and return home, debts unpaid.”

Also a “custom” for employers to confiscate passport of worker upon arrival. UAE courts have ruled this practice illegal, but companies continue to do it.