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Time
To Revisit Contracts, Enforce Labor & Environmental
Laws
Saturday,
January 22, 2005
By
Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
There's
one thing I believe most Liberians would like to have, now
that there is a ceasefire in their homeland. Other than
freedom and democracy, which we really need and has been a
challenge since the nation was founded, Liberians want
investment in their country.
Investing in Liberia will create opportunities and
jobs, which will then put some money in the pockets of those
who really want to work, which will also help put food on
the tables of homes across the entire country.
Trust me, Liberians will rush out there daily looking
for the jobs many never had in a long time. With our
leader’s unfortunate history of corruption and coziness
with big multinational companies, there is no telling the
mistakes of the past which, totally ignored unfair labor
practices, ignored the rights of workers, ignored the
degradation of the environment, and hindered growth and
development will not be repeated.
There is still that lingering doubt whether the jobs
will even pay decent wages to sustain the workers and their
families, since Liberian workers are known to be paid little
or nothing for their services.
Liberia was once flooded with investors and their
companies before the coup d’ tat of the 1980s, and the
civil war of the 1990’s, because of our so-called
reputation as a “business-friendly” country.
The multinational companies which never had any
interest, whatsoever, in the well-being of the Liberian
workers went in there anyway, established themselves with
the Liberian government as serious business partners, than
make their under-the-table illegal financial payments to
successive Liberian presidents to undermine wages and stifle
employee dissent.
Our leaders would then ignored the exploitation of
their people and country after pawning all things Liberia to
the highest international bidder who’s ready to make money
and enormous profits at the expense of the Liberian people.
At the end of the day, Liberian workers are paid
slave wages estimated
to be between one or two dollars a day, which is not even
the equivalent of a minimum wage. And when that particular
company finally decides to shut down and leave the country,
they leave without even given back to the neighborhoods
where that business was once located.
The environment has never been a concern to our
leaders and the companies either, because after those
companies shut down their doors, they also leave behind a
tsunami of environmental problems and its after effects,
like open and abandoned (holes) mines, which once caused a
mud or land slide decades ago killing many; water pollution,
air pollution, soil contamination, chemical run-offs, oil
spills, contaminated dump sites, deformed babies and broken
neighborhoods, which are still struggling today.
LAMCO, Bong Mining Company, BF Goodrich and Firestone
Rubber Company are few of the multinational companies, which
exploited Liberia to the bone.
Firestone, one of the multinational corporations
signed a 99-year lease in 1926, for a slice of the Liberian
nation, and still maintains its one-sided contract with
whichever Liberian president’s in power. That particular
contract guaranteed Firestone Rubber Company one million
acres of land with an annual rent of $0.6 percent per acre,
with a 1 percent sale tax on its gross income.
DELIMCO, the German-Liberian Mining Company which
later merged with BMC port facilities in 1974, became The
Bong Mining Company, which started its original operations
in Liberia in 1965, signed a 70-year contract with the
Liberian government. According to the agreement, the
government of Liberia supposed to have received 50 percent
of the profit “in lieu of income taxes,” (whatever that
means) and agreed to a duty-free import of the company’s
equipment and supplies.
LAMCO, the Liberian-American Swedish Mineral Company,
which arrived in Liberia in 1953, also signed a 70-year deal
with the government until 1990, when the country entered its
long civil strife.
Liberia
mining operations/courtesy Bong Town Community
The recent
headlines informing us that four multinational companies
have submitted bids to reopen the iron ore mines in the
mountains of Nimba County, is reason enough to be cautious
and reasons to also celebrate.
Simply because the Liberian people, for long have
been burned by their government's sleaziness and the multinational
corporation's insensitivity, which contributed to unfair labor
practices, terrible environmental policies and no
relationship with the communities they served.
We want jobs that will put the Liberian people back
to work, and we also want them to be paid well for their
labor. We don’t want our people to be slaves in their own
country, working long hours and under terrible conditions,
while unscrupulous government officials get away
with "murder," by signing bogus deals that fattened their wallets and
their bank accounts, while their kids, their girlfriends and
wives live luxuriously abroad at the expense of the Liberian
people in their unearned Victorian homes.
We therefore urge the multinational companies to
focus on the environment when they begin to exploit the iron
ore mines, repair whatever damage is done to the environment, pay
the Liberian workers fairly and equitably for their labor,
and invest in the community so that the mistakes of the past
will never be repeated.
The current interim Liberian government or an elected one
must revisit those age-old multinational contracts
immediately after taking office, and must act quickly and
decisively in the interest of Liberia and its people. If
those contract have to be reworked, so be it, but something
must be done to end the madness.
Lands, Mines and Energies Minister, Jonathan Mayson
said on Friday: “We will make sure that only the best
proposal is accepted so that our country’s rich iron ore
reserves are exploited in such a way that revenues accrued
will not only benefit the country but 25% of the profit from
the ore will be used for developmental purposes of the
existing communities … that is the demand of
government.”
Well
said, Mr. Minister. We are awaiting your deeds to match your
words.
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