--- title: Firestone, Rubber and Labor in Liberia | TIME description: Firestone's latex operation is Liberia's biggest private employer. The company has drawn criticism for past labor practices, but now partners with government to improve conditions canonical: https://time.com/video/Mp3vY9xi/ og:title: Firestone, Rubber and Labor in Liberia og:description: Firestone's latex operation is Liberia's biggest private employer. The company has drawn criticism for past labor practices, but now partners with government to improve conditions og:url: https://time.com/video/Mp3vY9xi/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Mp3vY9xi/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Firestone, Rubber and Labor in Liberia twitter:description: Firestone's latex operation is Liberia's biggest private employer. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Firestone, Rubber and Labor in Liberia [Watch (HLS stream): Firestone, Rubber and Labor in Liberia](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Mp3vY9xi.m3u8) (6:18)  _Published 2011-06-03. Firestone's latex operation is Liberia's biggest private employer. The company has drawn criticism for past labor practices, but now partners with government to improve conditions_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:14 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [People Are Prank Calling Liberia’s Ebola Hotline](/video/HcGM1a2H/) ### People Are Prank Calling Liberia’s Ebola Hotline [Watch: Liberia’s Ministry of Sound](/video/nUewvYJw/) ### Watch: Liberia’s Ministry of Sound [Child Rape: Liberia's Open Wound](/video/lepUFPll/) ### Child Rape: Liberia's Open Wound --- ## Transcript Aaron Coley is one of nearly 7000 employees at Firestone Liberia. The country's single biggest private employer. I tap for ten years now. I making $ 4. 32 a day. As a rubber tapper, Aaron has a daily quota of 600 trees to make that wage. At day's end, he then has to gather his latex into two large, very heavy buckets. How much does it weigh? 130 pounds. I hang it on [ INAUDIBLE ] then I carry it to the [ INAUDIBLE ]. With 130 to 140 pounds across his shoulder, Aaron walks the latex to a drop off for shipment to America. Rubber tapping is tedious labor, but the latex they gather brings in tens of millions of dollars each year. Ever since Harvey Firestone began this plantation in 1926, the company has been Liberia's most powerful and at times controversial foreign concession. But, recently the government has been breaking new ground with Firestone. To ensure that workers in the country share in it's success. At 118, 000 acres this is the world's largest rubber plantation. It even has its own capital city, Harbel. [ SOUND ] It's rubber factories are running again, but it's been a slow costly climb back up after the civil wars. I believe its been six years ago. Charles Stewart, president, recalls how it was after the war ended. Every, every building was destroyed. There wasn't a piece of wire. On that, so we pretty much started with ground zero to, to put things back together. Rebels had occupied the plantation in the mid 1990s. Firestone pulled out, not returning until the peace in 2003. We are in a rehabilitation phase. A very important part of that is replanting. We haven't replanted on a scale like this since the end of World War II. On a recent tour for journalists, Firestone was eager to show what they've done so far. We are now heading to the replanting program. [ UNKNOWN ] There is the hospital, considered one of the best in the country. One of 17 health facilities free to employees and their dependants. They also show Firestone school system, where 15000 employed children get free education. Chemical reaction. In this country, where even the books are scarce, here there is a working chemistry lab, down the hall, a computer lab was in session. You see, this is one of the best in Liberia. Firestone also notes their food subsidies for worker families, especially for Liberia, one of the world's poorest countries. The benefits do seem impressive. We have over 15, 000 students in our program, in our school system here. But a closer look shows they're not solely the result of corporate largess. Back in 2006, Firestone was facing and international storm of bad press. With allegations of terrible conditions. The protest became a series of strikes. [ SOUND ] Edwin Sisco is secretary General of that workers union. The conditions under which the employees live and work, in the past was so bad, so inhumane, and so degrading. You understand? Workers said thousands of families were living in falling down shacks without plumbing. I'm a third generation born of the couple. My grandparents work on this farm. They left the same condition. My parents came and worked on the farm and left the same conditions. And I'm here working with the same conditions. My kids are gonna come over. Are they're gonna come to work in the same condition? No, I say no to this. Following union and government negotiations with Firestone, the daily quota was reduced, wages went up, and Firestone agreed to replace all the old free housing with larger, better homes, also free. In 2006, another breakthrough helped press those changes through. I hope you were told that when this government came in, we renegotiated the Firestone agreement. And had them provide us a five year development plan for improving the conditions of the workers. So they showed you new housing, and new schools and new hospitals. They just happened in the last four years. The stricter demands on Firestone reflect a new determination from government. To gain more value back from outside investments in it's natural resources. I believe in a tripartied system here, of emoployers, respresentation of our workforce, and government that we all work together to make this a better place. If we don't, this wont be a better place and this country will not succeed. So we, we, we believe in what we are doing. We are making it better, can we do it overnight. No we can't. I wish we could. Every other company in this country look to Firestone to set up their own aspect of reform. And so what is happening here today is gonna have a ripple effect across our country. It affects every company that comes to Liberia. And because we are moving in this direction now you can see that a lot of changes, positive changes are happening in the lives of our people, I mean that's all we have been opting for. And we are leading in the right direction, so that we can make this farm a better place. [ SOUND ] That's it [ FOREIGN ]. This is Ed Robbins, for Time video and the international reporting project. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Firestone, Rubber and Labor in Liberia","description":"Firestone's latex operation is Liberia's biggest private employer. The company has drawn criticism for past labor practices, but now partners with government to improve conditions","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Mp3vY9xi/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-06-03T20:34:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Mp3vY9xi.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/Mp3vY9xi/","duration":"PT6M18S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/Mp3vY9xi/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```