What's Going to Happen to the Workers in Qatar?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Any kind of labor organizing in Qatar is prohibited. Noel: I saw strikes, wild cats, spontaneous strikes at every single site I was on. He says employers tolerated these strikes as long as they stayed within certain limits. "If workers organized across nationality, it meant that workers were no longer blowing off steam," he says.

The people who built Qatar’s stadiums, hotels, and transit systems were employed under the country’s exploitative migrant worker system. Officials promised things would change before the World Cup, but a one-time worker says it’s only better on paper.

This episode was produced by Haleema Shah, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard with help from Matt Collette, engineered by Efim Shapiro, and hosted by Noel King.

Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained

Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices