For the first time ever, laborers in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar are legally on strike. Over 300 foreign construction workers, mostly from South Asia, stopped working Thursday to protest salary and living conditions. Some have not been paid salaries for two to three months, and live in overcrowded rooms with inadequate air-conditioning and sanitary facilities. Worker visas have not been renewed by the company, and the strikers are concerned about deportation in an ongoing campaign against illegal workers. In 2004, Qatar became the third Gulf country to allow workers the right to strike and form labor unions.