First strike in decades in Bahrain in aluminium plant

Work in Bahrain's aluminium smelter Alba came to halt for an hour Wednesday morning in the first worker walkout in decades in the country to press demands for a wage increase.

More than 1,000 union workers from Bahrain Aluminium Company took part in the protest that was held inside the company and caused work stoppage in all non-essential facilities at it.

The workers were protesting a unilateral decision by the company to give them a 15 to 22 per cent wage increase, below the 30 per cent pay hike, which the union was demanding for its members in three months of negotiations.

The strike was the first of its kind to be organized by a Bahraini workers union in decades, coming two days after the king, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, issued a decree amending the existing labour law in the private sector to ban the dismissal of a worker because of his activities in his trade union.

The decree also instructed courts to reinstate the employee to his post and order the employer to compensate him for the period spent out of work when proven that his dismissal was based on his union activities.

The union, with some 2,400 members, is the largest in Bahrain.

"The strike is not an attempt to harm the company or the national economy, but the management needs to understand that the workers'interests must be taken into consideration," Albas union head Ali Abdullah Al Binali told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"The strike which will continue until our demands are met is a real test of the new law and the company's will to adhere to it," he said.

Work was stopped in all non-essential parts of the company, but workers in key areas like the turbines unit that provide electricity to the facility and country's electricity grid stayed on the job.

During the strike, the workers carried Bahraini flags and posters of the king, whom they praised for passing the law and standing up for them.

Alba, which commissioned its 1.7 billion-dollar Line 5 expansion project in May 2005, increasing its aluminium production capacity to 840,000 metric tonnes, from 530, 000 metric tonnes, is the world's largest modern smelter and the third largest aluminium factory.

Half of Alba's production is sold in the Bahrain market another 20 per cent is exported to the Far East, 18 per cent to the Gulf, and 7 per cent to South East Asia.

Bahrain was the second Gulf state to legalize labour unions in 2002 after Kuwait.