Tens have been arrested when police broke up on Tuesday a strike by the employees of the Aden branch of the Yemen oil company.
Many other employees and people of those whose homes are close to the company complex, including children, were injured when police fired live bullets and used tear gas to disperse the protesting workers who began a full-scale strike last Saturday demanding financial rights.
The injured suffered smoke inhalation after troops used force to evacuate the company building but there were no reports if any was injured by fired bullet.
Crackdowns against the striking workers were not restricted to clearing the strike, troops also pursued workers until their homes.
Furthermore, troops created checkpoints at the entrances of the district where the company building is located in Al-Buraika seizing six buses transporting company workers who planned to bolster their colleagues. As a result, further ten workers including three unionists were seized. The arrested were sent to the district jail.
Last Saturday, the workers of the Yemen Oil Company started a full-scale strike to protest their unimplemented financial rights.
The strike paralyzed main supplies, that the company was compelled to hire outside workers to avoid a real crisis affecting factories, fuel stations and governmental institutions in need of diesel.
The republic will see sharp shortages of fuel if the workers continue their strike as the company branch in Aden province supplies fuel to four provinces.
Before the strike, the Company Syndicate Council threatened to paralyze all deals if the demands of oil workers were not met, urging authorities to reconsider unjust decisions over daily wages of the workers and fix contract employees.