As Professor Fraiman recalled the conversation, “She said: ‘We’re investigating Andrew Ross for his comments about this and a particular journalist, Ariel Kaminer, who wrote about it. By the way, do you know her?’ ”
Continue reading Who hired investigator to spy on Andrew Ross (Gulf Labor) and Ariel Kaminer (New York Times)?
GULF LABOR WORKING GROUP LETTER TO GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
Subject: UAE Travel Ban on Prof. Andrew Ross
Continue reading UAE Travel Ban on Gulf Labor member Prof. Andrew Ross
Gulf Labor: “Recent activities appear focused more on “image management,” including the hiring of the PR firm Brunswick Group to respond to the activities of groups and individuals that raise issues relating to labor conditions on Saadiyat Island. Chairman William L. Mack, and President Jennifer Blei Stockman of the Guggenheim Foundation’s Board of Trustees, as well as those advising the authorities in Abu Dhabi and TDIC, need to recognize that this issue cannot be solved by treating it as a public relations problem.” Continue reading Gulf Labor: “Guggenheim Continues to Treat Worker Abuse as PR Problem”
She explains that the worker, identified by the pseudonym “Vijay,” was paid $2,100 in recruitment fees in 2004, but that, after a decade of work, now makes $217 a month Continue reading Molly Crabapple: At Guggenheim Abu Dhabi work site
Videoclip still, Sheikh Mc Abed had a Museum, less than a minute clip for Gulf Labor, 2014
This week’s contribution to Gulf Labor’s 52 Weeks is by Mounira Al Solh
To watch the video, please click below
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Gulf Labor is a coalition of artists and activists who have been working since 2011 to highlight the coercive recruitment, and deplorable living and working conditions of migrant laborers in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island (Island of Happiness). Our campaign focuses on the workers who are building the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the Sheikh Zayed National Museum (in collaboration with the British Museum).
“52 Weeks” is a one year campaign starting in October 2013. Artists, writers, and activists from different cities and countries are invited to contribute a work, a text, or action each week that relates to or highlights the unjust living and working conditions of migrant laborers building cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi.
By its local partner Khaleej Times, because of cover story detailing labor abuses during the construction of NYU Abu Dhabi’s campus on Saadiyat Island.
New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told Al Jazeera: “We’ve been in touch with our local printer to express our profound disappointment in this decision, which we understand was based on their objection to this one particular article. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time this has happened in the UAE.”
Reports:
Al Jazeera: NY TIMES SAYS UAE HALTED PUBLICATION OVER ARTICLE ABOUT LABOR ABUSES
Newsweek: UAE Halts Printing of New York Times Over Damning NYU Labor Article
Capital New York: U.A.E. printer stops presses on International New York Times
Hyperallergic: Emirates Censors International New York Times Over Saadiyat Labor Report
Online version here
Gulf Labor, a group of international artists campaigning for the protection of migrant labourers working on academic and cultural institutions in Abu Dhabi, said such payments “would help relieve workers of the immediate burden of debt . . . which underpins their extreme vulnerability”. Continue reading Gulf Labor calls on Abu Dhabi to pay off museum workers’ debts
On May 19th, 2013 thousands of workers began a strike at Arabtec, the contractor in charge of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The strike spread across several worksites in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, including at the Saadiyat Island Construction Village. Continue reading Arabtec workers strike, 460+ deported, police action
