Workers have been integral in the uprisings in countries in North Africa and west Asia during the Arab Spring. They have then suffered greatly as these uprisings have been met with state violence. In Bahrain in 2011 a mass popular uprising was repressed by the Bahrain government with the help of Saudi Arabia military. Mahdi Abu Dheeb was the president of the Bahraini Teachers’ Association and one of the many trade unionists arrested in Bahrain. He was sentenced to five years in jail. Abu Dheeb is now in poor medical health and there is an ongoing international union campaigncalling for his release.