Police arrested hundreds of South Asian workers on Tuesday who smashed office windows and set fire to cars during a strike for higher wages. One diplomat described the unrest as the worst violence at a labor camp in the Arab Gulf in years. Police said that at least 500 workers carried out "subversive acts" at a work camp in the emirate, or state, of Sharjah, according to the official state news agency, WAM. The workers broke windows in offices and set the ground floor of one building on fire and also burned five cars and damaged 40 others, police said. No injuries were reported. The violence broke out after workers demanded a pay hike, police director Brig. Gen. Humaid Mohammed al-Hudaidi said.
See "Emirati Police Break Labor Strike", Barbara Surk, San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 2008