DUBAI—In between congested roads where SUVs perform daring overtaking maneuvers to the chorus of thousands of car horns, vast concrete pylons are being constructed.
These are the beginnings of the answer to Dubai's heavily congested roads and the reliance on taxis as a major form of transport.
However, Dubai's nascent metro system will not be fully operational for at least another year. For hundreds of office workers expected to be stranded on the sidewalks tomorrow in the first-ever taxi strike in the burgeoning emirate, that may be a year too late.
"I have no idea how I'm going to get to work tomorrow," said one British office worker after hearing the news Tuesday evening. "Every day I rely on flagging down one of the many taxis here in order to make it to the other side of the city. If the taxi drivers all strike, I have no other way to get to the office."
Dubai is by far the richest city-state in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is emerging as an economic powerhouse in the Middle East region. However, the infrastructure of the emirates has, in many ways, failed to keep pace with the influx of foreign workers who now rank around eighty percent of the total population. As such, a large number of white collar workers who commute to work rely heavily on discounted, air-conditioned taxis to get to work. However, the majority of the drivers who work for the locally-owned taxi firms are from the Indian subcontinent and work in order to send money back to their families left behind in home countries. Most are subjected to working conditions that are classified illegal even by UAE standards.
"There will be a lot of drivers who will decide to strike tomorrow," said one Indian taxi driver who did not wish to be named. "Most of us are treated very badly and, although it won't change anything, we want to be heard."
"We work for a lot less than the minimum wage for 12 hours a day. When we start work we are not allowed to take a break to go to the toilet or get a drink of water. If we stop to go to the toilet and a customer isn't happy and decides to complain, we will be fined by our company around 700 dirhams (US$190). This counts even if I get some water to fill up my car. In most other jobs you can take a break."
"The company we work for charges us a lot of rent for rooms which we share with four or five other people. When we got here, the company didn't give us anything," the taxi driver said. "I had to pay for my medical card, visa, insurance, and I even had to buy my own uniform. These clothes aren't great material, but I was still charged a lot more than I would have had to pay elsewhere. If they are so keen that we wear uniforms, why don't they pay for it?"
Indian and Pakistani workers make up the majority of the population in Dubai and work in a variety of fields from catering to construction. However, they enjoy few, if any, workers' rights.
Dubai will soon hit average temperatures of around 120 degrees (F) as the region enters the hottest period of the summer. Yet, all across the desert city Indian workers in blue boiler suits toil away with pick axes or trowels in the mid-day heat. It is common to see workers huddled up together in shaded areas sipping mugs of water through parched lips around lunchtime, many more forced to work on through searing heat sometimes up to 12 hours.
Local papers are occasionally peppered with stories of Indian workers walking out in front of speeding cars in order for their families to claim a life insurance payment that often exceeds what they could offer through normal working means.
It may be the case that the sheer inconvenience caused by the loss of the taxi network will catapult the issue of workers' rights into the public eye, but whether or not it will provoke direct action by the government is another matter. With the metro system soon to be realized, compromising the leverage that taxi drivers now have over their own predicament, it is possible that the authorities are comfortable enough to sit tight and ride out the storm.
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