BUSINESS BRIEFS
Construction workers go on strike in Dubai
Advertiser Staff and News Services
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Thousands of South Asian construction workers went on strike yesterday over harsh working conditions in the latest threat to a spectacular building boom already endangered by a falling currency and labor shortage.
While laborers have long complained about working conditions in this Gulf city known for its avant-garde skyscrapers, luxury dwellings and archipelagoes of artificial islands, their recent action comes as contractors are struggling to find workers to complete their ambitious projects.
Dubai is home to the world's tallest building — the Burj Dubai, expected to be completed in 2008 — and the first Armani luxury hotel. Authorities report an annual average growth rate of 12 percent over the past decade, largely driven by construction.
The boom has been possible because of plentiful investment from oil-rich neighbors and armies of nonunionized South Asian workers whose fear of deportation, until recently, kept them from voicing discontent over low wages.
MERRILL LYNCH EXEC TO STEP DOWN
E. Stanley O'Neal, chief executive of Merrill Lynch and one of the most high-profile African-American executives in corporate America, is expected to step down from his position, possibly as early as today.
O'Neal's departure, if it takes place, would make him by far the most prominent victim on Wall Street of the fallout from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market during the summer. O'Neal's likely ouster was reported yesterday by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The reports were attributed to people familiar with the matter, and USA Today could not confirm those reports.
His likely fall from one of the highest positions in the financial world was swift and, until last week, unexpected. In early October, Merrill Lynch announced it would write off $4.5 billion in bad debt that it had accumulated through investments in the subprime mortgage industry. Other investment banks also announced billions of dollars in write-offs.
But last week, O'Neal surprised the market by increasing its write-off for the quarter to $7.9 billion. During a conference call with analysts, O'Neal admitted that Merrill Lynch had plunged too far into the subprime market.
