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In U.A.E, Weakened Dollar Slows Dubai Tower's Race to the Skies
The U.S. dollar's fall has triggered wage strikes from foreign workers, shown at the foot of Burj Dubai skyscraper.
(By Ellen Knickmeyer -- The Washington Post)
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In economic terms, the teeming barracks with their Indian and Pakistani workers stand on the fault line of shifting global fortunes.
The world's "economic epicenter is shifting," said Nasser Saidi, chief economist with the Dubai International Finance Center. Asia now accounts for more than 40 percent of world output, Saidi said.
On the other side of the world, the United States is trying to stave off a recession in the face of a failing housing market, high debt and a long-running trade deficit. The U.S. dollar fell for five of the last six years, sinking to record lows against the euro this year.
The surge of oil profits and the fall of the dollar have brought record inflation to the Emirates. Workers say they pay twice as much for cooking gas, vegetables and the other bare necessities. K.V. Shamsudheen, an Indian businessman who runs a group aiding Indian laborers, said the financial crisis has caused a one-third increase in suicides among the workers since 2004.
"Every time I telephone my family, they say, 'Cancel your visa and come home,' " Chandra said. All the workers in the room said they planned to do so.
But, Chandra asked, "If all the Indians leave, how are they going to keep working?"
This summer, the Emirates offered a one-way plane ticket home to workers in the country illegally. More than 280,000 laborers accepted, according to local media. Government labor officials declined to give their own numbers.
"It's far more attractive for them . . . to be living in their home country and making the same wages and living far more cheaply," said Tom Barry, general manager for Arabtec, one of the lead construction contractors for the Burj Dubai.
Tens of thousands of workers at the Burj Dubai and other work sites stopped work in October and November, demanding more money. Arabtec and other contractors promised 20 percent increases after the last strike.
Stephen Jen, chief currency economist with Morgan Stanley in London, said the gulf's surging oil wealth rather than the falling dollar was the prime cause of inflation here.
Jen suggested an easy way to stop the strikes by construction workers: "Pay them more."
Meanwhile, the Burj -- the word means "tower" in Arabic -- continues to grow. It passed a skyscraper in Taipei in July to claim the title of world's tallest building. It is closing in on a 2,063-foot-high TV antenna held up by guy wires outside Fargo, N.D. When the Burj overtakes it, at a planned height of more than 2,300 feet, it will be the tallest structure on Earth.
"Technology and engineering-wise, you can build it as tall as you want," said Greg Sang, a New Zealander who is project manager for the Burj.
The height has, however, forced engineers to come up with a new way to measure its straightness. Satellites have been used to ensure that elevator shafts run true on the building's half-mile stretch between earth and sky, Sang said.
