Vol. 75/No. 42      November 21, 2011

Some 4,000 airline workers employed by the state-owned Kuwait Airways Corporation struck for one day October 24, winning a 30 percent wage boost in basic pay.

Two weeks earlier 3,000 customs workers struck for two days in mid-October, disrupting sea, land and air transportation. Several tankers loaded with oil for export were unable to get clearance for shipment. The action also stranded 1,000 trucks carrying food imports at border points, reported al-Alarabiya.

The work stoppage was called off October 12 after the government promised to “urgently” look into the union’s demands, including pay raises of up to 150 percent.

The action was inspired by strikes in Kuwait’s oil industry in September in which workers won pay raises of up to 66 percent from the state. This encouraged other strikes.

Hundreds of workers began two-hour work stoppages at three ports September 25. “We will continue doing this every day until our demands for better pay and working conditions are met,” Ali Al Sukoni, head of the ports union, told Khaleej Times.

Several dozen bank workers rallied in front of the Kuwait Central Bank October 12. Firefighters have staged a sit-in protest against a mandatory fingerprinting system.

Workers employed by privately owned oil companies rallied in front of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in Kuwait City September 21 demanding equal treatment with those employed by government agencies.

Salem Al-Ajmi, chairman of the Union of Private Oil Sector Workers, told Arab Times Kuwait that about 5,000 workers employed by private oil companies are being paid late and have no health insurance, unlike their counterparts in the public sector.

Washington maintains seven army bases in Kuwait and one joint base with the Kuwaiti Air Force. With the majority of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Iraq scheduled to be withdrawn by the end of the year, the Obama administration is considering plans to keep large numbers of them in Kuwait “as a backup or rotational training force for Iraq,” reported NavyTimes. The plan also includes being ready to rush U.S. forces back into Iraq and storing in Kuwait its “‘pre-positioned’ war materiel,” an unnamed Pentagon official told Associated Press.

Out of Kuwait’s population of 2.9 million, only 1.2 million are citizens. About 1.7 million immigrants make up the majority of the workforce. Immigrant workers make less than half the wages paid to Kuwaiti citizens and are only allowed to join unions—as non-voting members—after five years of residency in the country.
 
 
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