Date of publication: April 21, 2006
Source: The Analyst
The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against the Firestone Plantations Company (FPCO) in a Californian court on behalf of the employees alleging conditions of slavery on the plantations. Firestone received the lawsuit with a pinch of salt, contending that the conditions on the plantations were much better than conditions elsewhere in Liberia. But the plaintiffs' counsels remained dogged, arguing that US and international labor standards do view what is obtaining in Liberia as labor violation and they vow to prosecute Firestone. In an update to that lawsuit, the counsels blamed the international community represented by ICGL for condoning exploitation in Liberia by closing its eyes to Firestone's exploits.
The Analyst Staff Writer looks at the allegation in perspective.
The counsels for the plaintiffs, ILRF, in the case Firestone Plantations Vs Plantations Workers have added two new dimensions to the lawsuit filed late last year, claiming international conspiracy and abuse of the environment.
Besides allegations that the company was subjecting tappers on the plantations to inhumane condition that include physical as well as psychological abuse, the counsels said the international community overlooked the labor abuse in Liberia when it had the opportunity to change the situation.
According to the "Basic Fact Sheet On Firestone, Liberia" produced by the counsels, the International Crisis Group on Liberia (ICGL), which comprises the United States, the World Bank, European Union, and the United Nations, was mandated between October 2003 and January 2006 to review and oversee the transitional period for Liberia.
The mandate, it said, included the review of all concessionary agreements signed by the transitional government for compliance to international sanctions and avoidance of corruption.
"These international actors turned a blind eye to the Firestone's exploits, ignored the public outcry and the legislative actions, and instead celebrated the return of international investors to Liberia," the "Basic Fact Sheet On Firestone, Liberia" said.
It said it was clear from the onset that this group was expected to uphold the core principles of democracy, human rights, and environmental protection, but that they woefully failed to do so perhaps because the company in error was a US corporate entity that pays millions of dollars in taxes annually to the U.S. government and provides employment for thousands of U.S. citizens.
The counsels did not say what they were planning to do with the ICGL but it seems clear that they intend to use the conspiracy theory to force US public opinion in the State of Indiana where the case is likely to be heard if the court in California grant the change of venue request currently being sought by lawyers representing the Firestone Plantations Company.
In another development, the plaintiffs' counsels, in collaboration with Institute for Policy Studies, Friends of the Earth, NAACP, TranAfrica, and other US-based organizations has accused Firestone not only of abusing the labor rights of tappers working on the plantation, but also of damaging the environment to the detriment of residents in and out of the plantations.
The group has therefore demanded that Firestone, known officially as Bridgestone Firestone, takes drastic measures that will change the situation and provide relief for the affected people.
"Firestone should stop releasing into the environment and stop exposing workers to any compounds and chemicals that are internationally recognized as most toxic - such as those that are slow to degrade, accumulate in our bodies or living organisms, or are highly hazardous to humans or the environment, including those known or strongly suspected to cause cancer, mutations, birth defects, infertility, damage to the nervous, endocrine or reproductive systems, or cause respiratory damage," it said.
It said Firestone should stop all riverine releases of toxic compounds and chemicals and must publicly disclose the identity and quantity of all toxic compounds and chemicals that it releases into the environment or that it transports.
The group did not name the chemicals being used by Firestone to coagulate and preserve latex, and increase the productive capacity of rubber trees, but noted that chemical wastes from the Firestone factory is dumped in the adjacent Farmington River, polluting the waterways communities along the river depend on for fishing, bathing, and drinking water.
"The once vibrant ecosystem of the riverway is now nearly dead, as Catfish seem to be the only lifeform that can survive the harsh chemicals drained into the river," it said, and added that there was no waste management or disposal system in place to protect Liberia's waterways, soil, and other natural resources.
It said the situation was so unbearable that communities on the other side of the Farmington River lodged complaints against the Firestone Company for respiratory ailments but with no redress from company or the government of Liberia Besides demands for the institution of measures by Firestone to improve the environmental and therefore health conditions of Liberians living in and out of the plantations, the groups also calls for the improvement of the company's relations with its employees.
"We urge Firestone to take responsibility for this situation and follow the law, supply modern tools to protect workers on the job from coming into contact with harmful chemicals, redress all environmental damages as a result of its Liberian operations, stop releasing chemicals into the environment and stop exposing workers to any compounds and chemicals that are internationally recognized as most toxic, and fully disclose all key project payments, contracts, and concession agreements," demanded the International Labor Rights Fund, Institute for Policy Studies, Friends of the Earth, NAACP, Transafrica, and other US based organizations.
With regards to the plight of tappers, the group also urged the company to improve the assignment of achievable quotas for the average worker to negate the use of child laborers, increase wages to raise the standard of living of plantation workers, and ensure that workers were provided with basic rights, including a living wage.
"Adopt policies that uphold International Labor Organization standards, immediately ending all child and forced labor and providing for freedom of association and collective bargaining, health and safety standards and upgrade work systems that currently place undue burden on workers, forcing them to carry heavy loads over long distances, and improve and upgrade housing conditions to provide modern, safe, and comfortable facilities for workers," the demanded further.
More than that, the group called on Firestone to scrupulously adhere to the implementation of all other key terms and clauses that are material in the determination of revenues accruing to the government from the project.
These, it said, must include contracts between host governments and companies regarding production sharing agreements.
It may be recalled that on November 17, 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed an Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) case in US District Court in California against Bridgestone alleging "forced labor, the modern equivalent of slavery" on the Firestone Plantation in Harbel, Liberia.
International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) executive director Terry Collingsworth filed the class-action suit in the name of 12 Liberian workers and their 23 children, who remain anonymous to protect themselves from reprisal.
"I learned of the conditions at the Firestone Plantation when a researcher from the Institute for Policy Studies, Emira Woods--who is herself Liberian--contacted me after her trip to Liberia," Mr. Collingsworth told SocialFunds.com.
"The strengths of the case are, unfortunately, the extreme human rights violations on the plantation--child labor is everywhere and adult forced labor is the norm," he said.
Also bolstering the case is a November 2005 CNN International interview with Daniel J. Adomitis, president of a Firestone subsidiary, in which he discusses workers' daily tree-tapping quota.
Admonitis claimed during the interview that each tapper taps about 650 trees a day where they spent perhaps a couple of minutes at each tree.
Using that information, CNN host Femi Oke calculated that six hundred and fifty trees a day, at two minutes per tree, it's 1,300 minutes, or more than 21 hours of work a day.
Using that calculation also, analysts say something was fishy since an eight-hour day has 480 minutes in which to visit 650 trees twice, in addition to other required tasks such as cleaning the taps, applying pesticides and fertilizers to the trees, and carrying 75-pound buckets of latex to collection points up to a mile away--all for $3.19 a day.
They therefore believe that indeed something illegal was being done. But Firestone contends that that is an unfair comment.
"We've had a policy in place for many years against child labor--there are strict guidelines forbidding the use of children as laborers," Admonitis said. "We did put out a policy directive because we wanted to reiterate and reaffirm the policy that is in place because we want people to know exactly what the guidelines and expectations are." But Mr. Collingsworth, who expects the company to formally respond in court within two weeks, sums up his opinion of the case succinctly.
"This case shows, in the age of public relations, codes of conduct, and 'socially responsible' business, what a major multinational will do if it can get away with it," he said.
He said there was no question that the situation in Firestone was against international laws including ILO Conventions, American and Liberian labor law.
According to him, the company stated that it forbids child labor, but that it knowingly assigned excessive quotas that can only be met by workers bringing their children to the plantation.
"Just imagine a 10 year old child forced to carry 70 pounds of rubber using a stick and 2 pails several times a day. Because of these harsh conditions the children cannot fully grow up physically and mentally.
They are being used as beasts of burden. Children cannot get a proper education and are forced to endure heavy physical labor in which they have to carry heavy buckets full of rubber latex many times a day," he claimed.
Besides the poor labor practice, he said, houses provided for workers were broken-down shacks built in the 1920s, with no running water and no indoor toilets.
"This is a stark contrast from the luxurious houses of many foreign managers, often white or Asian," he said.
In Liberia, where people suffer from poverty and unemployment, he said, losing a job means a loss of any way to make money, which easily leads to starvation.
"Therefore, the workers cannot freely oppose the company and must keep continue to work without appealing anything. This system, where generations of workers are born in the plantation and exploited from their youth, has continued for 80 years and constitutes modern-day slavery," said Collingsworth in the lawsuit filed with the assistance of scores of Liberian lawyers and institutions including the Green Advocates and Liberia Watch for Democracy headed respectively by Attorney Alfred Brownell and Cllr. Jerome Verdier.
He said in 2004, Firestone's world wide net sales were in excess of $23 billion, and 9.8 billion of those dollars came from the Americas.
Rough estimates say to this excess, the average tapper who works 30 days a month and produces at least 3,000 lbs of latex contributed $900 monthly, but that the tapper got a daily wage of $3.19 before deductions.
According to a recent report published by the Save My Future Foundation, between 2000 and 2003 Firestone exported 167,165 tons of rubber. Today, the price of rubber is at historic highs, $486 per ton. At today's price, Firestone is receiving $81,242,190 from its production in Liberia.
Firestone has joined Bridgestone Tire Rubber Company. All of the rubber produced in Liberia is sent to the United States for processing into tires, and other materials. No processing, manufacturing, or and other value added production is done in Liberia.
In 1926, Firestone signed a concession agreement with the Government of Liberia for a period of 99 years. That agreement covered one million acres of land, leased for a fee of 6 cents per acre for a total annual price of $60,000. In 2005, Firestone signed a new 37-year agreement with the Transitional Government in Liberia to lease the land for a fee of 50 cents per acre.
Meanwhile, the Central District Court of California seems poised to grant Firestone's request to transfer the case to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Collingsworth said the ruling by the California court would not affect the substance of the workers' forced labor claims but that as a result of the transfer, the workers would now have to face Firestone in its home court in Indiana.
Two of the corporate defendants live in Indiana; but legal opinions said there is no sign that such relationship will affect the outcome of the hearing.