Word: aramco
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Saudi Arabia's delayed awakening began in August when nine employees marched into Aramco (the Arabian American Oil Co., biggest enterprise in the land) demanding "justice" for all the company's 15,000 native workers. After its first surprise, the U.S.-owned oil company agreed to hear the spokesmen (all of them, it turned out, educated at Aramco expense, two in the U.S.). Their demands: a living allowance of $240 monthly added on to their $42 minimum wage, "living conditions just like American employees," air conditioning for all Saudi workers' homes, substantial reductions in foreign personnel...
...quickly as Aramco tried to settle one disputed issue, the leaders raised another. They seemed less interested in winning gains than fomenting trouble. There was good reason to believe they were influenced by Communists, some of whose literature had recently been seized by Saudi police. Then to Aramco's relief, the government stepped in, took over the negotiations. At first, the Arabian negotiators listened openmouthed as the labor leaders attacked the "backward" government, then, recovering, they clapped the agitators in jail...
...Aramco (Arabian-American Oil Co.) employees may not keep dogs as pets. This is not a Saudi restriction; it is an Aramco ruling to appease the government of ailing, powerful Ibn Saud (Moslems consider dogs to be unclean...
...Traffic penalties are so severe that Aramco's seven U.S. lawyers and a staff of "government relations" men spend most of their time trying to settle them. A 20 m.p.h. speed limit is rigidly enforced even on desert roads...
Americans put up with these strictures because Saudi Arabia is, after all, a holy land, and because Aramco values its royalties and the U.S. its big air base. Sometimes Americans lose their tempers; whether they are right or wrong in any particular ruckus, they are usually shipped home. One American was shot and wounded by a Saudi with the victim's own gun. The American was reprimanded for having a weapon, and deported; the shooter was admonished and set free...