The Stop Firestone Coalition Invites You:

The Heavy Load:

A discussion about Firestone’s abuses in Liberia

FRIDAY, July 18, 2008

12:30PM – 2:00PM

Institute for Policy Studies

1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600
Washington DC, 20036

(Nearest Metro: Farragut North)

Please join us for a discussion about Bridgestone/Firestone’s labor rights and environmental abuses on its rubber plantation in Liberia. We will be formally launching a new report on conditions on the plantation by Liberian-based Stop Firestone Coalition member, Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU), titled “The Heavy Load: A Demand for Fundamental Changes at the Bridgestone/Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia”

Speakers will include Edwin Cisco, Secretary General of the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia

Background: For 82 years, working and living conditions on the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia have been brutal.  Workers must meet an unreasonably high daily production quota or their wages of a little over $3 a day will be halved.  As a result, workers are forced to bring their children to work.  Tappers must carry two buckets weighing 75 pounds each on a stick on their backs for miles and work without protective gear.  Workers live in crowded one room shacks without running water, electricity or indoor latrines. The new SAMFU report details a wide range of abuses continuing to occur on the Firestone plantation.

For more information, please visit www.StopFirestone.org or contact Tim at tim.newman[at]ilrf.org or 202-347-4100 x113

**If you would like to join this event by phone, please contact Tim**