The_Open_Door_deel1

-447-
Tubman Estate (66). Interestingly, according to an expatriate
Rubber Advisor, only one of the 25 largest vendors in Maryland
County paid his corporate income taxes (67).
The same foreign Rubber Advisor showed the present author the file
of one of these 25 largest Liberian owned rubber farms in the
Cavalla area. The wage bill in it showed that nobody received the
legal minimum daily salary of $ 1.50. Most of the tappers included
earned between 75 cents and one dollar a day. During the conversation
which followed, he stated that he also knew that many tappers
in Maryland County did not get paid more than 50 cents a
day. The tappers employed by Firestone were better paid. In the
same year, 1978, Firestone paid a basic daily salary of $ 1.55.
At the end of the interview he told the following history which
clearly illustrates the distribution of privileges in Liberia.
When one of the labourers on the Firestone plantation had an accident
during the performance of his duty and consequently lost
his left arm, Firestone paid him $ 1,800 in damages, equivalent
to 30 months' salary. Our British Rubber Advisor, with long experience
in the Far East, was of the opinion that Firestone should
pay the worker substantially more. Thus, when he met. the Liberian
Minister of Labour some time later, he did not hesitate to mention
this. The minister's only reaction was:
"blhat do you think, my colleague* will tell me *ince they
all have Jiubben £an.m* too?" (68)
It is against this background that the low wage level and the absence
of trade unions for agricultural workers in Liberia should
be considered. Thus, Firestone's most important contribution to
the Liberian economy, the development of a Liberian owned rubber
sector, strengthened the position of the politically powerful
people and increased their economic wealth and power. This was
achieved by the supression of one of the constitutional rights
of the Liberian people: the right to organise. Consequently, this
prevented an improvement of the working and living conditions on
the Firestone plantations as well as on those owned by others.
The future of the Liberian rubber industry is further clouded by
a seemingly inevitable labour shortage since the children of rubber
tappers who have been so fortunate as to find a place in
school, will not readily agree to do the same poorly paid work as
their fathers had accepted.