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The United Steelworkers (USW) applauded the decision by the AFL-CIO when it awarded its 2007 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award to the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL) on March 5.

For the first time in Bridgestone-Firestone’s 82-year existence in Liberia, the more than 4,000 workers at the Firestone Rubber Plantation Company elected their union leaders in a free and fair election held July 2007.

International observers, including representatives from the USW and the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, monitored the election at the invitation of an Ad Hoc Election Commission created by the Liberian government. Workers overwhelmingly elected a reform slate of democratic and independent union leaders for FAWUL. 

The workers’ victory came not without sacrifice. Through a series of wildcat strikes, the workers succeeded in getting the government of Liberia to establish democratic union elections at the plantation.

The USW, which represents some 5,000 Bridgestone-Firestone workers in the U.S., did not take sides in the election but took up gate collections to support all their Liberian brothers and sisters.  USW International Vice President Fred Redmond and USW staff traveled there to offer assistance.  A training program was established to include FAWUL leadership and shop stewards.

During the strikes, workers were intimidated and beaten. Tragically, several workers were killed. Workers who managed to survive on pittances were living without pay and rice subsidies. The commitment of the workers to freedom of association and the right to organize was strong, and they remained unified in their actions.

When the company continued to refuse to recognize the democratically elected FAWUL leaders, plantation workers went on a strike Dec. 6 that lasted about three weeks before Liberia’s Supreme Court issued a decision recognizing the validity of the election.

“Real collective Bargaining is now taking place,” Redmond said.  “For the first time in the plantation’s history, the union has given the company a ground-breaking collective bargaining proposal, unlike in the past when the company simply dictated the terms of wages and working conditions.

“These men and women in Liberia are among the bravest people I have ever known,” he said.  “Now that they have established a truly democratic union, with the solidarity they have shown, they can begin to reap some of the fruits of their labors.

“The United Steelworker members are proud to have contributed to that,” he concluded.

To read the AFL-CIO Statement