WHEN:    Thursday, June 26, 2008; 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM  

WHERE:         TransAfrica Forum, 1629 K Street NW, #1100, Washington, DC 20006

Join TransAfrica in welcoming:    

Mr. Austin S. Natee, the President of the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia

Mr. Edwin B. Cisco, Secretary General of the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL) and National Coordinator in Liberia for the Swedish Pan African Trade Union Education Project (PANAF) of the LO/TCO based in Sweden.  

Mr. David D. Sackoh the Secretary General of the Forestry, Logging and Industrial Workers' Union of Liberia and the Director for Education and Information at the Liberia Labor Congress (LLC), the labor federation in Liberia.

Ms. Oretha D. Garway the Vice President of the Forestry, Logging and Industrial Workers Union of Liberia

Background: The living and working conditions at the Firestone Rubber Plantation, one of the world’s largest rubber plantations, are brutal, with management routinely violating basic human rights. Rubber tappers work 14-hour days to meet impossible production quotas, which require them to tap 750 rubber trees and to accumulate 150 pounds of latex daily. Pay amounts to little more than $3 a day and a monthly 100-pound bag of subsidized rice if quotas are met. Tappers walk for miles with more than 75 pounds of rubber in metal buckets on their backs, and the company fails to provide them with basic safety equipment.

On July 7, 2007, for the first time in the company’s 82-year existence in Liberia, the more than 4,000 workers at the Firestone Rubber Plantation Company elected union leaders in a free and fair election.   International observers, including representatives of the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO monitored the election at the invitation of an Ad Hoc Election Commission created by the Liberian government.

International civil society—trade unions, labor rights groups, environmental groups, think tanks, and Africanist organizations—supported FAWUL’s struggle to organize and support justice for Liberian Firestone workers in a true example of international solidarity.

TransAfrica Forum’s Viewpoint Lecture Series: Perspectives from Africa and the Diaspora undertakes in-depth examinations of contemporary issues integral to an informed appreciation for the political and socioeconomic fabric of Africa and the Diaspora. For more information call 202.223.1960 ext. 137 or email info@transafricaforum.org.