Arbeiderne ved anlegget til Binladin Group i Mekka i Saudi Arabia fører en kamp for lønninger de for lengst skulle ha fått utbetalt. (Ja, det er den familien Bin Laden. Selskapet ble etablert av Osama Bin Ladens far.) I denne kampen har de blant annet satt fyr på noen av selskapets busser.
Det er avisa The Independent som melder dette. Avisa skriver:
Workers at a major Saudi construction firm have set fire to nine company buses in protest over thousands of sackings and their salaries not being paid.
Employees at Binladin Group have staged several demonstrations within Saudi Arabia’s Mecca region in recent weeks, with some claiming they have not received their wages for six months.
The attack on the company buses came after Saudi Al-Watan newspaper reported the company had laid off 50,000 foreign employees and issued them exit visas.
Nettavisa The Middle East Eye skriver også om aksjonen.
The mass sacking by Binladin constitutes a 25 percent reduction of its total 200,000 workforce, according to its LinkedIn page.
The company, which was established in 1931 by the father of the late al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, is one of Saudi Arabia’s largest employers and it has been responsible for large construction projects including building towers in the capital Riyadh, and universities and airports in the western port city of Jeddah.
But the company has reportedly been suffering from debts of up to $30bn and it has been engaged in a series of pay disputes with workers, which in March led to protests outside their offices in Riyadh.
Arbeiderklassen i det islamistiske diktaturet består overveiende av utlendinger uten faglige rettigheter, arbeider som utsettes for en knallhard politisk og økonomisk undertrykking. Etter sharia er klassekamp ikke akseptert og fagorganisering forbudt. Når arbeiderne likevel går til aksjon, viser det hvor tøff situasjonen deres er.