By Abdul Tejan-Cole
Last week, Mighty Earth, a global campaign organization that works to protect the environment, published a report entitled “A Bridge Too Far? Social and Environmental Concerns in Bridgestone’s Liberian Rubber Plantation and a Plan for Remediation.” The report documents serious labour and environmental concerns at the single largest rubber plantation on the planet – the Firestone Rubber Plantation in Harbel, Liberia.
The report highlights Firestone Liberia’s long and chequered history related to labour and environmental rights. It raises the issue of the unfair dismissal of union officials, summary eviction from company housing, and continuing poor labour practices, including problems transferring Firestone's pension liabilities to the state.
According to the report, following the 2007 election of an independent Firestone Agricultural Workers’ Union of Liberia (FAWUL) and the negotiation of the 2008 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the management of Firestone Liberia failed to recognise the independent re-election of the FAWUL trade union leadership in violation of the 2016-2018 CBA. Soon after their re-election, six newly-elected union leaders were not recognized by Firestone Liberia as full-time employees of the union, FAWUL, and FAWUL’s elected Chairman and Grievance Officer were allegedly unfairly dismissed. Firestone Liberia and its parent company, Bridgestone Americas, maintain they are complying with changes to Liberia’s labour laws and union recognition and exclusive bargaining agent provisions in the Decent Work Act (2015).
Additionally, the report states that thousands of Firestone Liberia retirees are at risk of losing access to their company pensions unless pressure is put to bear on Firestone Liberia to continue paying pensions, at least until the Government’s social security agency, National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP), can guarantee that the full pensions of former Firestone employees can be fully provided for.
On environmental issues, the report highlights the concerns that persist about the impact of Firestone Liberia’s operations on local water sources, particularly in nearby Owensgrove, Zenge town, Kpanyatown, and other communities along the Farmington River. Local people interviewed for Mighty Earth in March 2019 complained of serious water contamination of the river, creeks, and wells due to Firestone’s operations, and the subsequent disappearance of fish from the river, leading to the loss of livelihoods for local fishermen. This corroborates earlier reports by the Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU), the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the International Labour Rights Fund (ILRF) about water pollution and environmental degradation associated with Firestone Liberia’s operations. These reports also pointed to the contamination of their rivers, creeks and wells due to insufficiently treated effluent discharged from Firestone’s nearby rubber factory, allegations of serious air pollution and strong ammonia smells during the day and claims by local fishermen at Owensgrove near the Firestone Liberia factory that there are no fish in the river during the dry season because of Firestone’s wastewater contamination and that their livelihoods are severely affected.
The report also notes that when Mighty Earth met with representatives from Bridgestone and Firestone Liberia in October 2019, they acknowledged that there was still an unacceptable volume of pollutants being released into a nearby creek, despite the fact that they installed a state-of-the-art wetland water treatment system that began operating in 2008 to reroute discharged water and deal with the problem at the rubber processing factory beside the Farmington River.
Following that meeting, Firestone stated: “Firestone Liberia is currently installing proven wastewater treatment technology that has been successfully implemented in other operations as expeditiously as conditions allow. The new system is expected to be online during the first half of next year (2020) and is designed to ensure compliance with the Liberian EPA-issued discharge permit limitations. However, Firestone’s effluent discharge testing results have not been corroborated by an independent source, nor by the government, and the findings are not easily publicly available or locally disseminated.”
Firestone has been in Liberia since 1926 with the support of the US government. An original 99-year lease has been extended and renegotiated several times but not much has changed. Firestone has benefitted immensely from the lease but Liberia has not. It has produced and exported billions of tons of rubber and generated enormous revenue, but there is no value-added production capacity in Liberia. It is Liberia’s single largest private employer, but it pays its employees peanuts and has no senior Liberian in its management. It even fails to pay retirees pension as low as less than US$ 50 a month. Working conditions are terrible, and tappers are paid a pittance. Housing is mostly one room. Most lack electricity, pipe-borne water, indoor latrines and are roofed with asbestos. The UNMIL report released in May 2006, “Tapping into the Future”, quotes FAWUL estimating the number of children not attending school at that time for these reasons at 60-65%.
The concession agreement fails to hold Firestone Liberia accountable for maintaining sound environmental standards as required by the environmental laws of Liberia. Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report shows how elites in Liberia and the US government worked together to help Firestone Liberia secure an agreement with the Liberian government that allowed the company cheap access to the country's resources and also placed Firestone in a position of significant economic and political influence over Liberia. The TRC report highlights how “Firestone was able to avoid sanctions on rubber that were applied to many other Liberian resources due to the role these exports played in fuelling the conflict. Firestone won this debate by utilizing its close relationship with the US Government and by making significant financial contributions to Charles Taylor in exchange for protection on the plantation.” The TRC cites Firestone as aiding and abetting economic crimes actors in Liberia between January 1979 and October 14, 2003.
Mighty Earth’s report provides several recommendations. It supports local and international civil society’s calls for Firestone Liberia to work with local CSOs and unions to create a truth commission. Such a commission will investigate and help resolve systemic inequality, economic and environmental injustice and historical grievances stemming from the operations of Firestone in Liberia. But the Firestone case is just but one example. Africa’s history is littered with stories of subjugation, exploitation and abuse at the behest of foreign corporations and individuals. From Shell in Nigeria’s Ogoniland, Dar Petroleum in South Sudan, Talisman Energy in Sudan, Lonmin Plc in South Africa to Glencore in DRC, there are cases abound. Multinational corporations have exploited the continent, displaced thousands of people, sponsored conflicts, raped its mineral wealth, paid a pittance for backbreaking and dangerous work and committed many other human rights violations.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” underscores the importance of businesses to support and promote human rights. The rights referred to are internationally recognized human rights, including the International Bill of Human Rights and the principles concerning fundamental rights set out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The responsibility to respect human rights requires that business enterprises avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities and to seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts. Firestone has failed to respect the economic and social rights of Liberians, including the right to development, drinking water, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and adequate housing. As one of the oldest companies on the continent, it must be the first to be held accountable.
The Liberian government must also up its game. In many instances, African governments have been complicit. They have been unable or unwilling to enforce the minimal regulations that exist. Either as a result of corruption, weak legal systems, state capture, weak enforcement institutions and unable political context, African nations, like Liberia, have woefully failed to protect their people from corporate abuses and sacrificed human, economic, social and cultural rights to promote foreign business. Rather than end poverty, this has exacerbated it and exposed local people to exploitation by corporations and underdevelopment.
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