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STOP FIRESTONE'S EXPLOITATION AND CRUELTY

  • by: J.R.S.
  • recipient: DAN ADOMITIS, President, Bridgestone/Firestone/ FIRESTONE NATURAL RUBBER


End the abuse of Liberia and her people

Bridgestone Firestone Child Labor in Liberia, Africa

 

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC has had a rubber plantation in Liberia since 1926, when Liberia declared their independence.

Bridgestone Firestone abuses their local workers by subjecting them to slavery and encourages the adult workers to bring their children to help them meet their daily quota of rubber production. This situation is against international laws including ILO Conventions, American and Liberian labor law.
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As Bridgestone/Firestone celebrates the news that net income for fiscal year 2005 increased 58% to a record $1.53 billion, on sales of US$22.8 billion, we send this letter to express our concern about your operations in Liberia.
2006 represents the 80th anniversary of Firestones exploitation of the Liberian people. 
From the workers on Firestone's "plantation" forced to bring their children to work in order to meet daily tapping quotas or risk losing the measly $3.19 per day wage; to the government denied valuable fees and taxation, Firestone has built its record profits on the backs of Liberia's poor. In 2005, Firestone took advantage of a caretaker government to sign a new, even more exploitative agreement to extract Liberia's rubber resources for an additional 37 years.  In 1926, Firestone paid Liberia just 6 cents per acre of rubber and with the new agreement this rate goes up to a token 50 cents per acre of rubber. 
This letter is to convey our outrage at the abuse of Liberia and her people.  We are appalled that modern-day slavery would be practiced in the operations of an American icon.  We are also concerned that environmental damage caused by the use of harmful chemicals and the untreated run-offs from Firestones operations into adjacent rivers is having severe health implications on communities around the plantation. 
80 years of exploitation is enough! Bridgestone/Firestones 2005 concession agreement has to be renegotiated in the interest of the Liberian people, the environmental damage must be redressed and the slave-like conditions on Firestone's plantations must end now.
Thank you.
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