These are the construction workers for NEW YORK UNIVERSITYS new campus in Abu Dhabi. They are: - bonded laborers, owing their first years wages to their recruitment agent; prevented from keeping their own passports; and, not allowed to hold their own money. And yet, in ABU DHABI, former President BILL CLINTON said on Sunday that he believed that New York University and the Abu Dhabi government would conduct a thorough investigation into worker rights abuses at the university’s new campus as he delivered the first graduation speech there. According to an article in the NY Times, “He predicted that the students would give themselves a “fist pump” of congratulations when N.Y.U. released the findings of its investigation, which he said would be a testament to the transparency of the university.” Clinton claimed the university had done the right thing by immediately responding to the claims and setting out a commitment to investigate. However, claims have been made against labor practices in the construction of the campus for a long time, with only silence from NYU while labor leaders were jailed. Bill, why will this be any different - because you said so? Again from the NY Times: “Facing criticism for venturing into a country where dissent is not tolerated and labor can resemble indentured servitude, N.Y.U. in 2009 issued a “statement of labor values” that it said would guarantee fair treatment of workers. But interviews by The New York Times with dozens of workers who built N.Y.U.’s recently completed campus found that conditions on the project were often starkly different from the ideal.” Images: Migrant workers, in their tiny apartment in Abu Dhabi, earn as little as $272 a month while building a campus for New York University; immigrants account for 85 percent of the population in the U.A.E. Migrant construction workers can work 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. Credits - Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times nytimes/2014/05/19/nyregion/workers-at-nyus-abu-dhabi-site-face-harsh-conditions.html?action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 11:24:36 +0000
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