Two thousand foreign construction workers are striking to protest low wages, poor working conditions, and rising prices in Dubai. The predominantly South Asian, non-unionized strikers have been striking for three days.

The average salary for construction workers is $149 dollars a month, which leaves them with barely anything to send to their home countries to support their families. The declining value of the UAE dirham makes their meager salaries worth even less.

The workers held protests at a labor camp in the Jabal Ali industrial zone and on a construction site in al-Qusais neighborhood, and threw stones at police cars. Strikes are against the law in the UAE, and the strikers were threatened with deportation.

Some of the strikers returned to work after being promised higher salaries and overtime pay by government and company officials.

The strike comes at a time when there is a shortage of workers to complete the country's many ambitious projects including skyscrapers and artificial islands. The UAE government granted amnesty to all illegal workers in June, offering them free one-way tickets to return to their home countries. 280,000 workers took advantage of the amnesty and left the UAE. The booming economy in India has also led to a decline in workers migrating to the UAE in search of jobs.