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GUEST: Emira Woods, co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus

As millions of people in the United States will be tuning into the Super Bowl this Sunday, a controversy has emerged around the sporting event’s halftime show. More shocking than any possible “wardrobe malfunctions,” this year’s halftime show is being sponsored by the Bridgestone Firestone corporation that has faced allegations for exploitative working conditions in Liberia. The rubber tire manufacturer has held a plantation in the African nation since 1926 and is currently accused of abusing workers. A class action suit by former workers in 2005 alleges that Bridgestone Firestone employed child labor. The ongoing legal complaint also accuses the corporation of underpaying its workers at $3.19 per day, issuing punitive quotas, and exposing employees to hazardous chemicals and pesticides. Most recently the corporation refused to meet and negotiate with newly elected union officials. Last December, workers went out on strike as a result of the company’s decision, only to face repression from Liberia’s police forces.

For more information, visit www.stopfirestone.org.

Rough Transcript

Sonali: Thank you very much for joining us. So, let’s talk about this corporation that is going to have huge returns for its advertising this Sunday during the Super Bowl. It’s going to be getting millions of viewers but a lot of Americans watching the halftime show are not going to know much about what’s happening in Liberia.

Emira: The history is painful. The history starts back in 1926 when Harvey Firestone himself wanted to have a place in the world where rubber trees could be grown. He then picked out Liberia because of the historic ties between America and Liberia. Liberia was just across the Atlantic and had a steady flow of laborers and so what happened was Firestone, in 1926, took a million acres and, Sonali, the key part of the history that we often forget is that there were people living on that land. A million acres of land was expropriated. Firestone signed a 99-year lease to basically extract all the rubber that it could for $.06 an acre. So, they really started off a process that was exploitative from the beginning. From pushing people off their land and really giving them no other option, forced off their farms but to come and then work as laborers on the Firestone plantation, to the token fees and taxes that they paid to the Liberian government since 1926, to also the environmental damage – the chemicals, the pesticides but also the toxic waste that Firestone has dumped over these eight decades into Liberia’s riverways. It is a history mired in exploitation and abuse.

Sonali: So, let’s talk about the child labor. Exactly what kind of working conditions are there? What are the demographics of the children that are exploited and what kind of work are they forced to do?

Emira: Well, you know, the rubber tree is like a maple tree with a sap that runs from it like the maple syrup runs from the maple tree. In the case of rubber, it’s a white sap that runs from the tree. The sap has to be collected each day several times – at least 3 times each day. So, the process is really a tedious one and what happens is Firestone, again since 1926, has put forward this quota system. If the workers don’t tap, don’t collect the sap from a certain number of trees each day, they either get reduced or no pay at all. So, Firestone says that number is 653. The workers put the number a lot higher, closer to 1,000 trees. Whatever number you choose, even if its Firestone’s lower end, it takes at least – and again, CNN had this wonderful expose where they interviewed the head of Firestone North America and he said it takes a couple of minutes per tree. Now, at least two minutes was what the CNN expose used, two minutes times 650 trees – it would take a worker 21 hours to actually complete that task. So, it is humanly impossible. What happens then is that the workers bring their children to the site to help them tap the trees, to help them meet their quota because they don’t want to risk not getting paid their $3.00 for that day if they don’t meet that quota. So, they bring their children and, you know, it’s really painful because some of these children as young as eleven I saw there on that plantation. You know, very young children that are being brought to work under these harsh conditions. The other thing that we often don’t talk about, you know, is the unpaid work of women because women are also now increasingly being used in this process and yet it will be only that one worker, that one tapper that gets the $3.19 a day. So, it is the exploitation of children, which is absolutely inhumane. It is also the exploitation of women and the unpaid work of women that’s part of this process of making Firestone huge, billions actually in profits, historic profits, in 2006 and in the first quarter of 2007. It is on the backs of people like this in Liberia.

Sonali: Now, has Firestone and its corporate executives, have they been confronted with this child labor that is unpaid and also women’s labor that is unpaid to help the workers make their quota, are they aware of this and do they accept it?

Emira: Well, they are very much aware of this. Two years ago now, in November of 2005, the International Labor Rights Forum and International Rights Advocates now, they put forward a lawsuit against Firestone right here in U.S. Federal Court. And this lawsuit was explicitly on the conditions on the plantation in Liberia using an old statute to the Alien Tort Claims Act here in the U.S. to hold U.S. corporations accountable for their behavior internationally. So, they are in U.S. Federal Court, in the Indianapolis District and very much focused, the court case is very much focused on this child labor issue. Now, Firestone has responded by saying that they have a set policy against child labor…

Sonali: They say, in fact, “ a zero tolerance policy” – that’s the quote by the President of Firestone.

Emira: Exactly. And what we’ve seen clearly is that you can have whatever you want in writing but the practice has been absolutely different from that. Unless Firestone moves to really remove the onerous quota system, you will continue to have workers forced to bring their children, to bring whatever family members they can to help them meet that task.

Sonali: I want to remind our listeners – I’m speaking with Emira Woods, Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus. We’re talking about Bridgestone-Firestone Corporation, the sponsor of this Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show and its history and current accusations of using child labor and exploiting workers. Let’s talk about the toxic work atmosphere and workplace that the workers have to deal with. What are some of the health effects of doing this work?

Emira: It is ridiculous. As you enter the plantation, you smell toxic fumes, actually from miles away you can smell these toxic fumes. There are several steps along the way in which very harsh chemicals are being used and, you know, it starts with the tree and it starts with the workers and often these children that are applying chemicals and pesticides to the trees. It’s formaldehyde, it’s ammonium nitrate, these chemicals being applied to the tree…

Sonali: And do they have any protective clothing?

Emira: They have no protective gloves, they have no masks whatsoever. But, that’s one part of the environmental damage and exploitation. But the other part comes down the road in the process where there’s a factory where the rubber is being prepared to be put on a ship and sent to America and there, there are, again, more chemicals added to the process to actually turn this white rubber into a darker rubber that you see on your tire on your car. And what happens in that process is that the toxic waste that is absolutely dumped right into the Farmington River which is adjacent to the factory has actually had its marine life completely killed. It’s become almost a dead river. But what you see is incredible skin rashes and respiratory ailments in the community that is adjacent to the factory. But, let me tell you Sonali, this is one of the wonderful parts of this campaign because it is not only people here in the U.S. that are speaking out at Firestone and against the NFL for creating a platform for Firestone but the community that has suffered that environmental damage has organized! They have been organizing. There is the Concerned Citizens of Owens Grove, one of the communities adjacent to the factory, that has organized, met with their county leaders and has pushed for environmental clean-up around the Firestone factory. There is also the newly strengthened Environmental Protection Agency in Liberia that has at least begun to do the testing necessary to then hold Firestone accountable.

Sonali: And is this under the new government?

Emira: This is under the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf government. That’s correct. So, for generations governments have played both sides. They have at times pushed Firestone to, for example, create a manufacturing plant. Since 1946, the Liberian governments have been pushing Firestone to add value to the resource, to make rubber gloves, to make tires. You know, now we have HIV/AIDs devastating the region but yet rubber is still put on a ship and sent to America and these finished products sent back. So, for generations really, the Liberian government has been putting pressure on the company to add manufacturing but those demands have fallen on deaf ears. The government now is in a position to re-negotiate a contract, a concession agreement with Firestone. So now is a key opportunity for the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf government, Africa’s first woman president, to actually stand up to the Firestone Corporation and make demands on worker safety, make demands on environmental clean-up, make demands on proper fees and taxation. But we are still waiting to see what will happen as a result of these current negotiations.

Sonali: Let’s talk about the unionizing effort. You talked about community’s organizing but what about the efforts to unionize the workers?

Emira: Oh, that’s been phenomenal as well, Sonali. Let me tell you, you know for much of their history in Liberia, Firestone has manipulated the process. It isn’t only that they were able to pay token fees and taxes over the years but they’ve also manipulated the union organizing efforts by essentially choosing who should be the union leadership and actually controlling the union for a large part of that time. But, over the last two years there has been a complete sea change. The workers have organized. There was an aggrieved workers sort of like a shadow union but what has happened is that they have now risen. In July of 2007, the union organized its first independent election. The first time in that 80-year history, the union organized its first free and independent election and brought to power a new union leadership standing firm on the rights of workers and what happened from July, 2007 to December, Firestone refused to negotiate, refused to work with that new union leadership. The union then took the case – well, actually it’s Firestone that took the case to the Supreme Court in conjunction with the old leaders contesting the validity of the election of the union leadership. And, what happened is also historic because the Liberian Supreme Court sided with these new strident labor leaders and so, in December, they made a ruling against Firestone, again, a first time for a large multinational corporation with all its power to be told, no, you cannot do this, you must recognize this new union leadership.

Sonali: Emira, we only have a couple of minutes left. For listeners who are going to be watching or planning on watching this Sunday’s Super Bowl, what do you think Americans can and should do about Bridgestone-Firestone? Many of us are driving cars with their tires on them.

Emira: Well, I want to first hold out the city of Berkeley because this week the Berkeley City Council made the links between the global and the local. Berkeley passed unanimously a resolution in solidarity with the workers in Liberia. Berkeley buys approximately 85% of their tires from Firestone. This resolution sent a powerful message and I believe that there are city councils, there are school districts but also all of us as individual consumers have a power that we can see. So, I would encourage people to take action whatever way we can. The easiest way would be while you are watching the Super Bowl to talk with those who are watching with you about Bridgestone-Firestone. Make sure they are aware about the child labor violations of this corporation, about the environmental exploits and abuses of this corporation and hold not only Firestone but also the NFL accountable for creating a platform for a company with such atrocious policies to actually be spotlighted at such a marquee sports and television event. So, there are ways and I would encourage people to go to the website: www.stopfirestone.org and find all the multiple ways in which you can take action today.

Sonali: Perhaps listeners can print out some of the research from that in preparation for their Super Bowl watching activity. Emira Woods, I want to thank you so much for joining us today. Emira Woods is Co-Director of Foreign Policy in Focus and you can read her writing at fpif.org

Special Thanks to Julie Svendsen for transcribing this interview