As a strike by 40,000 Asian construction workers entered its sixth day (Nov. 8), at the tallest building in the world, the government ordered ministers and construction companies to review salaries and possibly set a minimum wage in an effort to avert more turmoil. The strike, one of the most crippling amid Dubai's construction frenzy, has triggered a labor crisis in this desert city-state that is marketing itself as a top Middle East business and luxury tourist hub.

The workers, who are protesting low salaries, soaring living costs, and poor working conditions, have refused to work for Dubai construction giant Arabtec at a hotel site under construction as part of the world's tallest building. The walkout has prompted the creation of a salary review committee, made up of labor ministry officials and construction company representatives.

The 40,000 Asian workers, who have complained about pay delays and random deductions, have vowed not to leave the 26 labor camps in seven semi-autonomous Emirate states until their salaries are raised by at least 55 U.S. dollars a month. The company pays unskilled workers $109 a month; skilled workers get $169.

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Court Rules That Russian Strike at Ford Be Postponed 20 Days

Some 1,500 Russian auto workers staged a one-day strike at a Ford car-manufacturing plant near St. Petersburg on Nov. 7, while a court ruled that any further strike be postponed for 20 days. The court upheld a suit by Ford demanding the strike be postponed so that an agreement on working conditions could be reached between unions and management, a company spokesperson said.

Ford employs 2,200 workers at its sole Russian plant, with an average wage of 21,000 rubles ($850) a month, according to the plant's managers. The plant's trade union officials said that the decision to strike was taken after management had repeatedly rejected wage demands first made in July.

The union said the strike could resume on Nov. 20 for an indefinite period if management does not promise to increase wages from March 1, 2008. Ford produces its Focus models in Russia and plans to increase its output from the current 72,000 cars to 100.000 cars a year by 2009.

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$22 Million for Australian CEO; Workers Get $800 Pay Cuts

The fact that Telestra CEO Sol Trujillo will get a $12 million pay packet this year while one million working families will get a real pay cut of up to $800 shows the unfairness of the Howard governmentıs Work Choices Industrial Relations (IR) laws, said Sharan Burrow, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). "Last week Professor Ian Harper, the head of the Howard government's new wage-setting body, confirmed that real wages for more than a million low-paid workers have fallen by up to $15.67 a week or $814 a year," Ms. Burrow noted.

"The legal requirement for fair minimum wages, along with Australia's unique independent umpire and award safety net have been major features of Australia's IR system for the past hundred years until they were overturned by the introduction of the Howard government's unfair Work Choices Law," she added.

The union is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the "Sunshine Harvester" wages case. In response to a union pay clam in 1907. Justice Higgins of the Industrial Relations Commission ruled that employees deserved a wage guaranteeing them a standard of living reasonable for "a human being in a civilized community." Australiaıs minimum wage is now $522.12 a week or $13.74 an hour.

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Thousands Join Peru's Striking Miners to Protest Free Trade Pact

Thousands of teachers, nurses and construction workers marched in Peru to denounce a free trade pact with the United States on Nov. 8, the fourth day of a nationwide miners strike. In one of the biggest protests against President Alan Garcia, chanting marchers representing a broad group of unions, urged the government to abandon mainstream economic policies.

Workers want a greater share of an economic boom that has elevated growth to 8 percent a year, but largely left wages stagnant and bypassed the poor. "The needs of the masses must be defended, as they are, by all of Peru's left and the Nationalist Party," said Mario Huaman, leader of the country's largest labor confederation, the CGTP, which organized the strike.

Hours before the protests, Garcia raised his left hand in front of the presidential palace with the V-victory sign after hearing the U.S. House of Representatives approve the U.S.-Peru trade agreement.

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Poland's Gdansk Shipyards, Home of Solidarity, is Being Sold

Polish authorities have cleared the way for the Gdansk Shipyard, one of Poland's top historic, but financially struggling, icons, to be bought by the Ukrainian firm Donbass. Don bass first said in September that it aimed to buy a 75 percent interest in the shipyard for 400 million zlotys ($169million), but later added that it wanted the full 100 percent.

The shipyard has an important place in Polish history as it is the birthplace of the celebrated Solidarity trade union. Back in 1980, a strike by 17,000 shipbuilders at Gdansk saw Solidarity recognized as the first non-communist trade union in the then Soviet-dominated eastern bloc. The move was one of the first successful steps that led to the eventual collapse of communism, not just in Poland but in Eastern Europe as a whole.

Under communism, Gdansk could count on regular work from the Soviet Union, but it has struggled to compete in the post-communist free market and its workforce has been reduced to 3,000. Solidarity founder Lech Walesa said earlier this year that he would consider it a "personal failure" if the Gdansk shipyard was not saved.

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La Scala Cancels Verdi's 'Requiem' Due to Orchestra Strike

The American conductor, Daniel Berenboim, and his fellow musicians received shouts of "brevi"² after the open dress rehearsal, but the ticket-buying public won't get to enjoy Verdi's "Requiem:" on Nov. 9: LaScala's 800 employees are going out on strike. The concert would have also capped a year of commemorations, marking the 50th anniversary of the death of world-renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini.

La Scala said it was prepared to offer a pay increase, based on the strong earnings in the past two seasons, noting that the number of concerts has risen from 164 a year in 2001 to 273 in 2007. But it said it was unable to negotiate a deal with the workers in the absence of a national contract, and no talks on a national level have been scheduled.

Musicians who spoke to The Associated Press said La Scala had not raised wages in seven years. The union has been pressing the opera house management for months to resolve the pay issue, but without success. La Scala has 135 musicians and 107 in its chorus.

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