Tire Giant Firestone Hit with Lawsuit over Slave-Like Conditions at Rubber Plantation - Yahoo! News: "At Firestone, 'all of the workers are poverty-stricken Africans, enduring extremely inhuman conditions under the constant guard of American and now Japanese overseers who live in the finest houses in Liberia, looking down on the field hands from their verandahs and the company's private golf course,' the group says.
By contrast, 'most of the workers have never been off of the plantation and do not even know that the world has moved on and slavery has been abolished.'
The company denies the use of child labor and claims that its jobs are among the highest paying in Liberia. But right activists who have visited the plantation attest to the desperation and fear conveyed by Firestone's workers.
'I have seen six people living in one room, without any toilet, electricity, or running water,' Jerome Verdier, an environmental lawyer from Liberia, told OneWorld. 'The company has no justification whatsoever to keep on exploiting those people.'"
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