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Saturday, February 15, 2025

Over 60,000 Firestone Plantation’s Workers Strike

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Thousands of contract workers of Firestone Liberia LLC started a strike Thursday to protest poor working conditions.

The non-permanent workers numbering 70,000, want the company to introduce a retirement benefit equal to a month’s wages multiplied by the number of years worked, because at the moment nothing is paid to them when they go out of work, Marcus Blamah, an employee and Secretary-General of the National Timber, Wood, Construction & Allied Workers’ Union of Liberia said by phone.

They also want monthly wages increased over three years – an increment of $40 from Jan. 1 this year, $20 from January 2026 and $20 from January 2027, he said.
The indefinite strike comes nearly two months after negotiation between the union and the unit of Nashville, Tennessee-based
Bridgestone Americas Inc.hit a deadlock.

“We are on a sit home action,” Blamah said. “We are not going to allow people that work in Firestone for more than 30 years to go home retired without $5 given to them.”

Firestone in a statement called on the union to return to the negotiation table and for the workers to get back to work.

“We regret that we have been unable to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with NTWCAWU and Firestone Workers Union of Liberia,” it said.

“We call on the Union to return to the negotiating table and let the employees return to work.”

Government efforts are underway to avoid escalation, Labor Minister Cooper Kruah said by phone.

The strike could affect supply for Bridgestone’s tire production worldwide. The company, which also used to buy rubber from local producers until a disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has invested $1.3 billion in the West African economy since the end of civil war in 2003, according to the company’s website.

The West African nation produced 100,000 tons of rubber in 2022, the fourth biggest in Africa, according to Nairobi-based SME Support Centre. The other top producers were Cameroon 300,000 tons, Nigeria 350,000 tons and Ivory Coast 600,000 tons.

  • Bloomberg/ Festus Poquie

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