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Discuss this article (1 Comments)Up to 3,000 lose Bahrain jobs in global crisis - union
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Thursday, 25 June 2009
zoomPROTEST MARCH; Unions have organised a march after 59 workers lost their jobs at Gulf International Bank in Manama.
Up to 3,000 workers in Bahrain may have lost their jobs as a result of the global economic slowdown, a senior union leader has claimed.
The country's labour unions will begin a "right to work" campaign on Friday in a bid to pressure employers to reinstate those affected.
It will kick off outside the Central Bank of Bahrain from where thousands of protesters are expected to march to the Gulf Investment Bank (GIB) which dismissed 59 workers last month, Gulf Daily News reported on Thursday.
"While this was earlier planned to be predominantly a rally to ask for the re-instatement of GIB workers, we will now also use the opportunity to highlight the plight of nearly 3,000 workers - both expatriates and Bahrainis - who we believe have lost their jobs in the last few months," General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU) spokesman Jaffer Khalil told the paper.
"While we believe about 3,000 people - more than half of them Bahrainis - have been sacked by their employers - only 273 have registered with us so far," he added.
"We are now urging all of them who have lost their jobs to come and report to us so that we can take up the matter on their behalf."
Khalil said it had also come to their notice that some expatriates who had been sacked had been asked to return to their jobs at considerably reduced salaries.
He added the GFBTU was preparing to send a letter to King Hamad regarding the sacking of GIB employees.
He said officials hoped the Saudi King would help since Saudi investors were the majority stakeholders in GIB.
The union earlier sent letters to Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, CBB Governor Rasheed Al Maraj and Labour Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi urging them to support their case.
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Short Sighted
Posted by Wake-up on Thursday 25 June 2009 at 20:24 UAE time
Typical labour union thinking. Strike and march for the jobs of some so that a company can then totally go bankrupt and everyone in the company loses their job. What on earth are they thinking - that money grows on trees so the companies can just keep the people in jobs until the money tree grows totally dry. Here's a thought ... work harder in the first place and perhaps the companies may not have been in the position to have had to reduce their workforce in the hard times!! Be realistic.
Posted by Wake-up on Thursday 25 June 2009 at 20:24 UAE time
Typical labour union thinking. Strike and march for the jobs of some so that a company can then totally go bankrupt and everyone in the company loses their job. What on earth are they thinking - that money grows on trees so the companies can just keep the people in jobs until the money tree grows totally dry. Here's a thought ... work harder in the first place and perhaps the companies may not have been in the position to have had to reduce their workforce in the hard times!! Be realistic.
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