Natural Rubber Company

Firestone and Liberia: Hand in Hand
Firestone Natural Rubber Company is an affiliate of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company founded in 1926. The company is headquartered in Indianapolis, and it operates one of the largest rubber plantations in the world in Liberia, Africa. “The Republic of Liberia, on the coast of West Africa, has a population of about 3.5 million. Despite its natural wealth in gems, rubber and timber, it is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an 85 percent unemployment rate and 60 percent of the population under 25 years old.” By the 1920’s and 1930’s, Firestone’s main focus was building power plants, factories, houses, planting trees and hundreds of miles of roads in order to employ thousands of Liberians. Firestone Liberia contributed to the Allied effort during World War II by supplying rubber to the military. In 1926, according to Firestone Natural Rubber company main page, “Firestone leased 1,600 miles of jungle in Liberia for its location, soil and climatic conditions with the goal of producing its own natural rubber.” Now, Liberia is the centerpiece to the world’s largest natural rubber operation. Firestone is trying to rebuild the country after 14 years of civil strife by supporting the community. In 1976, Firestone and the Liberian government resigned a concession agreement in order for the company to continue operation in Liberia. According to the article “Firestone Natural Rubber On Last Leg of plant renegotiation”; "In 2005, in order to save the Liberian rubber industry and to return the company’s operations to pre-war status the Firestone Natural Rubber Company and the Liberian government signed a renegotiated agreement. The basis of the agreement called for extensive post-civil war capital investment, urgent replanting of trees and a lease that lasts until 2041 in order to collect rubber from the newly planted trees.” In addition, the company commits to long-term replanting and assistance in the rebuilding of civil war destruction. The Firestone Natural Rubber Company pledged $100 million of capital to post-war rebuilding efforts in 2006. A year later, Firestone’s post-war rebuilding efforts included providing space for relief and other donations through Firestone’s shipping services: L & C Shipping Lines.
In 2008, the government of Liberia and Firestone Liberia signed an amendment to the 2005 agreement that created 6,500 jobs on its rubber farm. It also negotiated a new labor contract with the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia. A year later, Firestone Liberia launches its Hevea wood operation. The main goal of the operation is to take rubber trees that have reached the end of their 28-year life cycle and process it into ecological Hevea wood for use in the manufacturing of furniture, flooring and other products. According to a news release in the company website, the reason why Firestone began this initiative was because “After the civil war ended, Firestone started an aggressive replanting effort to rehabilitate their rubber tree farming operations. Replanting up to 5,000 acres a year meant that they had a lot of old trees to clear.” So, while they waited for the new trees to reach maturity, they decided it was time to come with a concept that would benefit them and the people in Liberia as well. With this new business, they were ready to provide 500 more jobs. Even though this new operation created jobs, it also helped the community to grow and have a better quality of life. Firestone began the construction of new homes for employees and their families. It has completed over 900 new housing units and many more are in progress. Firestone Natural Rubber Company has created a lot of value for Liberians because it has created new ways in which the people can improve their lives. Apart from Firestone trying to accomplish its business goals, the company has been involved with the Liberian community by providing employment, healthcare, education and creating the image of social responsibility.
Health care is a major issue worldwide; in many countries, even the most advanced and powerful ones such as United States, the citizens are facing great concerns with their health coverage and insurance, but it is even a greater issue for undeveloped countries such as Liberia. In Liberia there are not many opportunities for people to receive basic health care, nonetheless a proper one. Luckily, there are organizations and companies such as Firestone determined to help third world countries improve their economies and living conditions. This has been shown in what the company has been exhibiting in the past decades in Liberia. Firestone’s continuous efforts have created more resources for Liberians to rely on. For example, by creating the Firestone Liberia Hospital Firestone is offering medical services and has also helped improve standards of living while providing job opportunities for many citizens. Furthermore, Firestone’s hospital brings health care to the people of Liberia, making it more affordable and accessible for Liberians to get proper health care especially for the residents of Margi, the community in which the Firestone hospital is located. Firestone’s employees and their families are very much beneficiated as well because they have free of charge access to the hospital’s medical services. “Du-side Hospital treats up to 9,000 patients each month including not only employees and their families but also other residents of the area”. “Their medical facilities are among the best in Liberia. People in need of medical treatment from around the country come to Firestone Liberia when they cannot find the treatment they need elsewhere.” Though there has been great progress the Liberian health care system is very inadequate and only provides basic medical services in which majority of the population does not have access to. Moreover, Liberia’s health care system is slowly beginning to restore besides the critical conditions many Liberians continue to live in. Firestone Liberia has contributed a lot to the health care success of the country; “over the years, the company has built, staffed, equipped and operated a hospital, medical clinics, mobile clinics and ambulance services. Through numerous programs including doctor visits, immunization services and participation in studies of life-threatening diseases, Firestone Natural Rubber Company improves medical services for Liberians of all ages.” Firestone Liberia has been of much help to the country creating better living conditions as well as better health conditions for many citizens. Firestone does not only focus on helping or benefiting the company’s employees and their families, but the community as a whole. A great example of this is the Du-side Hospital. Being a third world country, Liberian health care is progressing, but it is only one of the many problems they have to confront on a daily basis.
Education is critical in developing nations like Liberia and it is the key to progressive future for Liberia. Firestone Liberia has its own school system and is constantly evaluating the education needs of the company's employees and their families. Being a strong supporter of education, Firestone Liberia operates and assumes the full cost of a 26-school system. This system includes a high school and it educates nearly 16,000 children enrolled in the school system. They also provide on-the-job training to improve the work skills of Liberian employees and offers scholarships for advanced education at home and abroad. In the Liberian education system there has been a large imbalance in genders attending school. The education department of firestone has been assisting girls to attend, remain and perform well in school. The Firestone Department of Education Females Educators Committee (FIDEFEC), on a voluntary basis, is putting into practice the awareness on the importance of the female education. The committee was founded in 2003 with the help of the superintendent of schools and a cross section of female teachers of the Firestone School System. As grade levels rise, the number of females in schools begins to decline, especially from grade eight and above. The founders of FIDEFEC also observed that at the grade eight and nine levels, some of these girls dropped due to teenage pregnancy. This case is the result of a lack of information regarding human bodily functions. The FIDEFEC has focused on teaching female students the importance of the processes their bodies undergo; giving awareness on the importance of education, teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, as well as encouraging them to maintain themselves through basic home improvement programs. The FIDEFEC serves as an encouragement to female students residing within the concession area of Firestone. Reports from teachers say that the girls have been responding positively to the committee’s push for girls to put more time into their studies. The FIDEFEC has been visiting schools within the concession area of Firestone to give lectures, teach drama, cultural dances and role plays. The Firestone School System has an enrollment of more than 8,000 students with teachers whose qualification ranges from “C”- Certificates to Master’s Degrees. One of the controversies promoted by some critics of Firestone Liberia suggests they use child labor. A federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit accusing the Firestone tire company of illegally using child labor in Liberia, but found that U.S. law allows companies to be held liable for human rights abuses abroad. Without technological improvements and high quotas, the system leads the adults to recruit their young children to help them in the fields, claim the plaintiffs of the Flomo v. Firestone Natural Rubber Company , the most recent lawsuit against the company. In its July 2011 ruling in Flomo v. Firestone Natural Rubber Company, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit declined to find Firestone liable for alleged child labor on its rubber plantation in Liberia. The company does not directly employ children, but imposes stringent production quotas on its adult employees. On these particular facts, the Court ruled that Firestone does not violate customary international law against child labor. In an opinion written by Judge Richard Posner, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, he states that companies are not immune from liability in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute for human rights abuses outside the country. The Judge rejected claims by 23 Liberian children who challenged working conditions on an 118,000-acre latex-producing rubber tree farm in Liberia. Firestone has operated in the west central African country since 1926. Firestone claims these allegations do not make sense when you consider the fact that they currently operate 26 schools, including one high school, with an enrollment of more than 15,000 children, in which all of the children of employees receive free education from the company. Firestone Liberia projects it’s believes that the best place for children is inside the classroom. Firestone Liberia states that it does not hire or employ anyone under 18 and has a zero-tolerance policy that prevents parents from bringing their children to work or being used as subcontractors. The Firestone policy of hiring workers who are at least 18 years of age goes beyond the Liberian labor law requirements by two years. The company's zero-tolerance policy is communicated to all employees through their supervisors, at employee meetings, through signs posted around the property, and through their elected union representatives. Employees found violating this policy face the loss of their jobs.
Firestone Natural Rubber Company is an organization that profits in the form of rubber production in Liberia. The company develops rubber from Liberia to create products like rubber tires and rubber latex condoms. By expanding the company into Liberia, Firestone has created equity in the nation as well as supply employment and well needed jobs into the area. Jobs provided range from Tappers, which extract latex from rubber trees, and factory workers to medical staff and educators. Looking from the outside in, it seems as if Firestone is having a very positive impact into the community, but due to much controversy there seems to be some issues with the company regarding labor rights in Liberia.
There have been several court cases that have brought attention to working conditions in Liberia. Intense labor is being recognized as an abuse on the people of origin. “…They employ 21,300 men, 12,500 of whom are Tappers.” It is argued that workers are being given too much quotas as well as extreme work hours. These claims are reinforced by interviews and documentary, for example the CNN documentary in 2005. During the documentary, it was discussed the daily rate of extraction (bleeding) of rubber. "Each worker removes approximately 650 trees per day, this takes a couple of minutes per tree," the manager admitted in the report. "650 trees per day, two minutes per tree, are 1300 minutes, or more than 21 hours per day," replied the reporter. An eight-hour day is 480 minutes, during which they must visit twice 650 trees, and perform other required tasks such as cleaning cuts, applying pesticides and fertilizers to the trees and hauling buckets of latex from 75 pounds to the point of collection, located up to a mile away, all for $3.19 per day. With jobs like Tapping, 21-hour days are what have been expected as small amounts of latex are gathered from hundreds of trees at a time. To make it even more difficult, working conditions are not up to par. “Approximately 70% are laborers (tappers) who are mostly illiterate and unskilled Liberians. The lack of employment for unskilled laborers in Liberia, and the inability of the Liberian government, past and present, to monitor the activities of the company have given rise to the abuse of laborers and the poor working and living conditions they have to endure.” Employee’s families are stuffed into camps that of which have no access to clean water and electricity. Families are left to live in one-bedroom units while the camp holds over fifty families. There has been progress in Liberia under Firestone, but though wages and incentives are greater under Firestone employment, social responsibility to their employees has been extremely controversial. Firestone is not just a corporation that off shores labor and resources in Liberia, they have acquired a status of citizenship after more than eighty years working with the country and its citizens. They know the community, and thus have used their resources to match the needs of it. As part of Firestone’s 2005 agreement with the Liberian government, they committed to enhance the environmental stewardship through the creation of an Environmental Management Plan. Communicating with its surroundings communities, and their neighbors, Firestone gathers information and reviews its operations to identify environmental issues and addresses them in a timely fashion. It is this communication that has brought to their attention the water conditions of the Farmington River, adjacent to the company’s installations. They started taking samples of the water “to ensure compliance with recognized water quality standards from other rubber-producing countries, as prescribed in its 2008 Agreement with the Government of Liberia.” The samples are analyzed in the company’s water treatment facilities used in their plant. “The company's operation includes a state-of-the-art, multimillion-dollar water treatment facility and constructed wetlands…[the] system includes… an equalization tank and clarifying tanks that remove solids from process water and treat it. The process water is then sent to constructed wetlands…the end result… is water that exceeds applicable standards for water quality.” Firestone also plants rubber trees in the land they rent to the government, as a part of their environmental initiative. This way they can align philanthropy with business objectives, reputation and branding. However, no one can really tell the motives behind their philanthropic giving, but one thing is clear, this strategic philanthropy gives them the image of a “socially responsible” donor. Claims against the company, guarded by the UN, are continuous. The workers claim to be trapped by poverty and coercion on a plantation frozen in time. The demands make a deep emphasis on extreme violations of human rights in plantations, the presence of child labor and the forceful adult labor. The main contribution of this paper is to highlight that Firestone is the only U.S company in the industry that has had this level of commitment with the country where it offshores. Not only do they standout globally by having the biggest rubber plantation in the world, but they also are far beyond what is usual in their solidarity with Liberia. The agreement to post civil-war investment in the country to help them recover after 14 years of societal disorder, the Du-side hospital that attends not only Firestone’s employee but anyone that needs the care throughout the country, the 26-school system that educates nearly 16,000 kids, the personal empowerment of women through the creation of the Firestone Department of Education Females Educators Committee, and the environmentalist water-treatment facility have elevated the country to new heights. Firestone is improving the lives of all Liberians, including their own employees. However, they have to address the issue regarding the high quotas of labor. If not, they take the risk of coming across as a company that uses social responsibility as a façade to hide its exploitative operations within the organization.

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