In Liberia, the Solidarity Center works with U.S. union partners to organize rubber workers and workers in other key extractive industries such as mining and timber.
The 2005 election of Liberia’s first democratic government in 14 years created the political space for workers to raise their voices about many decades of abuse in the workplace. The Solidarity Center, in partnership with the United Steelworkers union, supported a strike by workers on a vast rubber plantation who were living in near-slavery. Their homes were paper shacks with no electricity or running water. Impossibly high production quotas forced children to work alongside their parents, and workers had no protection against the raw latex that dripped into their eyes.
The USW and the Solidarity Center offered skills training and solidarity during a series of strikes that eventually led to the first free and fair union elections in the company’s history. The new union, FAWUL, signed its first contract in 2008. In July 2008 FAWUL received the AFL-CIO’s George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award in recognition of the extraordinary courage, strength, and solidarity of Liberian rubber workers.
Liberian Rubber Workers Sign Historic Labor Agreement. Ending more than 80 years of struggle, more than 4,000 workers on a Liberian rubber plantation signed a historic collective bargaining agreement on August 7, 2008.
Liberian Rubber Workers Receive AFL-CIO Human Rights Award. In recognition of the extraordinary courage, strength, and solidarity of Liberian rubber workers, the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia received the 2007 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award, given annually to an individual or group fighting on the front lines for the rights of working women and men.
Solidarity with Liberian Rubber Workers. Joseph is one of 6,000 workers on a 200-square-mile rubber plantation in Liberia. Each day, he rises before dawn to harvest the latex, Liberia’s largest export product.
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