Posted on 01/14/2009 9:41:42 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Workers deported from Saudi after pay dispute
By Zhang Haizhou and Wang Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-15 07:36
Twenty-three Chinese workers have been deported by Saudi Arabia after being arrested earlier this week for going on a strike in protest against "low pay", the Chinese embassy in Riyadh said Wednesday.
It could not be confirmed when exactly they went on strike but reports said it was before Saturday, said a newspaper based in Chengdu where all the workers are from.
About 200 workers from a suburb of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, working on a construction site roughly 1,000-km north of Riyadh, were part of the protest, Chengdu Business Daily said.
News of the arrest broke when Liao Xianling received a text message late on Saturday night from her husband in Saudi Arabia.
It read: "They (the workers) held talks with representative of the construction site, but failed. With guns, some people - supposed to be Saudi police - took 23 Chinese workers away We kept calling them but couldn't get through."
Her husband left for Saudi Arabia in November, she told the newspaper, but she had not received any money from him till now.
An earlier message her husband sent read: Sichuan workers were not paid fairly, so they decided to "solve the problem by going on strike".
Their arrest was confirmed when Zheng Qiao, resident of a village in Jintang township, received a text message from Zheng Yongcai, his fellow villager, at 2:21 am on Monday. "More than 20 people were arrested Tell their families to seek help from the Chinese government," it read.
All the Chinese workers on the Saudi construction site are from Jintang.
The Chinese embassy has confirmed the arrests but said the workers were safe and had already been released.
"They are all safe now and will be sent back home tonight (local time)," an embassy official surnamed Yang told China Daily over the phone yesterday. Going on a strike is against Saudi law, he said.
The Saudi government has stopped the media from reporting the incident because it does not want to harm the good relation it enjoys with China, Yang said.
The Chinese embassy, however, will investigate the incident further, he said.
Back in Jintang, a local official told China Daily that most of the 200 workers left for Saudi Arabia in three batches between August last year and this month.
The official surnamed Zheng, of the local bureau of labor and social security, said a Guizhou-based labor service company, Boshi Engineering and Labor Service, handled the workers' travel plans and service contracts.
The Chengdu Business Daily, however, said Boshi was not qualified to send workers overseas.
"The workers were told that they would get 6,000 yuan ($882) a month but were paid only 3,800 yuan on average," he said. Boshi could not be reached over the phone for comments.
Ping!
Maybe George W Bush can intervene...he is quite nice and friendly to both...and we have sent a lot of money to both over the years
Saudi does not owe China hundreds of billions of money dollars
It could also be an indication that Saudi doesn't want 1 million Chinese troops overrunning their "Kingdom". I''m LOL......if America doesn't protect these ass hat islamafacists......they are toast. And they know it.
i guess that solved the workers problem
If the pay is low, don’t work.
I’d say those workers got off easy by Saudi standards, because they’re from China, a country that can play ROUGH. Workers from, say, the Philippines or Indonesia would’ve ended up in the hoosegow and may well have tasted the lash.
Screw the Saudi’s. I’ll side with the Chinese on this issue.
I agree with you - I’ve met South Asians (Indians/Pakis) and Phillipinos who have told me horror stories about how they were mistreated by the Arabs and their third-world collaborator agents.
The millions who make up the labor force in several Arab “countries” lead horrible lives.
So much for Mu-slime/CAIR/Democrat complaints about the “oppression” faced by the Koranimals in Western countries.
"The Chengdu Business Daily, however, said Boshi was not qualified to send workers overseas. "
Boshi stiffed the workers.
The strike was against the ChiComs. The story only says they went on strike over pay.
When the ChiComs didn't come up with the rials, Saudi started arresting. China quickly agreed to send the strikers home.
What about the rest of the workers on the site? Bet China is paying them the right wage now.
yitbos
“Workers from, say, the Philippines or Indonesia would’ve ended up in the hoosegow and may well have tasted the lash.”
They would have been lucky. The Chinese workers must have had connections. Filipino workers have been put on buses and driven out to the desert, never to be seen again.
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