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LARSON: Securing economic, social and political rights.

Ellie Larson, executive director of the American Center for International Labour Solidarity, visited the UAE for Construction Week's GCC Leadership Summit '08. She speaks to Conrad Egbert about how the GCC fares with workers' rights.

The UAE is fast becoming a preferred international destination with one of the world's most diverse multicultural workforces. With this unprecedented growth, the UAE is experiencing the growing pains expected of a Middle Eastern country dealing with a large migrant labour community.

Challenges facing the government and employers include comprehensive labour laws that ensure adequate wages, accommodation, and health and safety.

Ellie Larson, executive director of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center for the Washington, D.C.-based American Center for International Labour Solidarity, was in Dubai last week for the GCC Leadership Summit '08 labour conference. It was a rare event in which Human Rights Watch, labour organisers and employers met to discuss at length a wide range of labour issues.

Larson's role at the Solidarity Center is to secure economic, social and political rights for workers around the world.

She had been the International Affairs director and executive assistant to the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO, in the United States. She had managed a union representing 55,000 members at 26 airlines with flight attendants from 102 countries.

Larson discusses the challenges facing the country and how it can implement concrete measures to win the race to retain its workforce.

What is the perception of the UAE in the Western world when it comes to workers' rights?

In the Western world, all the Arab nations are clubbed together so it's even harder to be taken seriously and often the good that is done is not conveyed. But it also opens up a space with human rights organisations to discuss ways of doing things and to better their reputation.

I really believe that there is a leadership here which wants to do the right thing in terms of (workers') rights and wants to see the right thing done by their people.

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