Secret Squirrel
05-28-2005, 01:44 PM
Around 300 Filipino workers have gone on strike at a US military base in Baghdad, apparently in a protest over their working conditions.
The staff are unhappy at working long hours and say they are given unsatisfactory food and accommodation.
The Philippines embassy says the action is part of a wider problem of how Asian workers are treated.
The Philippines has around 6,000 staff working at US bases in Iraq, mostly in construction, catering and maintenance.
Thousands of workers from around the world are being lured to Iraq, despite the dangers of going there, by the promise of pay cheques better than they would get at home.
Western workers can earn hundreds of dollars every day, while people from poorer countries usually get just a few hundred dollars a month.
An official at the Philippines embassy told the BBC that the staff now on strike were ready to put up with a lot for their wages, which they accepted would be lower than those of westerners...
link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4588723.stm)
The staff are unhappy at working long hours and say they are given unsatisfactory food and accommodation.
The Philippines embassy says the action is part of a wider problem of how Asian workers are treated.
The Philippines has around 6,000 staff working at US bases in Iraq, mostly in construction, catering and maintenance.
Thousands of workers from around the world are being lured to Iraq, despite the dangers of going there, by the promise of pay cheques better than they would get at home.
Western workers can earn hundreds of dollars every day, while people from poorer countries usually get just a few hundred dollars a month.
An official at the Philippines embassy told the BBC that the staff now on strike were ready to put up with a lot for their wages, which they accepted would be lower than those of westerners...
link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4588723.stm)