Saudi Binladin Group employees set fire to buses in protest

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: AP

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Employees at the Saudi Binladin Group, a construction giant, have set fire to more than seven company buses in the latest protest by disgruntled staff over not being paid salaries for months and a large round of reported layoffs.

Maj. Nayef al-Sharif, the spokesman for the Civil Defense in the city of Mecca, said late Saturday that firefighters put out the blaze without any injuries reported. The Binladin Group has not issued any statements about the reported layoffs or the unrest. Calls and an email request for comment to the company were not immediately returned.

For several weeks, thousands of the firm's employees have been staging rare protests in Mecca and the Red Sea coastal city of Jiddah, with some saying they have not been paid for six months.

The attack on the company's buses comes a day after the Saudi Al-Watan newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying the company has terminated employment for 50,000 foreign workers and issued them exit visas. Many of those workers are apparently refusing to leave without being paid their late wages, the newspaper reported.

Read more: http://www.njherald.com/article/20160501/AP/305019919#

[rpannier]

1. Sad. Terribly sad

That the bin Ladins and the royal family were not on those buses as they were torched

[fasttense]

2. Feudalism in action

Nice to be able to kick out of the country your unemployed workers when you fire them and don't pay them.

[Ford_Prefect]

3. Good thing we don't have that here, eh? Can you imagine off-shoring the workforce but not the jobs?

[LiberalArkie]

4. It would be interesting that if in the future the Saudi people actually have to do manual labor.

[keithbvadu2]

5. They are fighting a big power family.

The bin Ladens are Bush family friends.