Firestone is one of those all-pervasive brands. Firestone's involvement stretches back to 1926, when the company signed a 99-year concession agreement with the Liberian government and started the single largest natural rubber plantation in the world. At the turn of the 20th century, the United States government, backed by the American Republican party, President Herbert Hoover, and key lobbyists in the automobile sector (like Henry Ford), wanted to secure rubber for the American market.
The State Department hoped that the huge contract would keep Liberia within the American sphere of influence, without necessitating direct governmental control. It turns out Firestone has played such an important role in Liberia’s history that the country has actually been called the "Firestone Republic".
Firestone, Liberia and One of History's Great Sweetheart Deals
Firestone Rubber Plantations in Liberia
Early History and Expansion
In 1910, profits for The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company exceeded $1 million for the first time. By June 1910, Firestone’s new factory in Akron, Ohio opened. A few years later, Ohio became the hub of the tire industry, leading manufacturing of automobile castings and rubber inner tubes. It also had more rubber workers than any other state, with 63,637 people working at various tire companies.
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On October 14, 1923, Harvey S. Firestone delivered 2,000 sets of tires to the Ford Motor Company. On February 7, 1938, Harvey S. Firestone died at his winter estate in Miami Beach, Florida.
Harvey Samuel Firestone
On May 31, 1955, Firestone became the world’s largest rubber producer, producing at a rate of one million pounds of rubber per day. Now ranked 37 in the top 50 American corporations, the diversification of Firestone had accelerated to areas ranging from coated fabrics to footwear.
Operations in Liberia
We recently visited the plantation, which is about 50 miles outside of Monrovia in a place called Harbel, named after the founder, Harvey Firestone, and his wife, Isabelle. It’s right near the Roberts International Airport, which incidentally started as Firestone’s private landing strip. Driving around, we were amazed by how vast it is - 118,000 acres or 200 square miles (the size of the concession was renegotiated downwards by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf).
The place is like its own mini-Republic, with its own housing, churches, schools, hospital, banks, post office, supermarkets, markets, roads, and taxis (not to mention the more exclusive Firestone "Staff Club," which includes a golf course, a tennis court, a gym, a restaurant, and even a verandah with a spectacular view).
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Harbel Firestone Liberia
The Firestone Natural Rubber Company is arguably the single largest employer in Liberia, with 4000 employees referred to as teammates and 2000 contractors, contributing over 100 million every year to the Liberian economy through taxes, payroll, payment to smallholder farmers, and social security to the Government. Once regarded as the largest contiguous rubber farm in the world, Firestone has witnessed many ownership transitions in recent years but has maintained its standard despite challenges.
The company’s current Concession Area is 118,990 acres, which management says has remained unchanged for over 50 years. The plantation is divided into 44 Divisions, each around 2,500 acres. The Divisions are under a replanting cycle that includes 7 years of growth after planting, followed by 24 to 27 years of tapping. Annually, Firestone processes and exports over 100 million pounds of Technically Specified Rubber (TSR) to the Bridgestone Group, which amounts to less than 5 percent of its global demand.
Rubber Plantation Liberia
Under the terms of the Concession Agreement, Firestone spends over $8 million each year on social costs across the farm. It manages 22 schools and educates over 7,000 students on its farm. The company’s medical services through Duside Hospital and the 3 additional clinics administer to 50,000 outpatient and 5,000 inpatient cases each year. Firestone maintains and repairs over 6,000 housing units and thousands of miles of roads in its concession area.
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The Rubber Tapping Process
Before visiting Firestone, I had never given much thought to where rubber comes from. It comes from a labor-intensive process of tree-tapping, which involves making an incision into the bark of the light-colored trees and collecting the white latex sap in a bucket. The tappers go to work early in the morning, cutting each tree one by one.
They then leave the trees for several hours to “bleed” their latex, which runs down the incised bark into small red buckets that are hung from the trees. The workers pour the individual collections into a bigger bucket, which are taken to the factory on the plantation. If left, the liquid natural rubber latex coagulates into a solid gooey lump that looks like a large wet wiggly marshmallow. The water is extracted from these lumps to get solid rubber (which is brown). That rubber is exported to the US to be converted into tires at Firestone’s factories.
Although rubber grows well in Liberia’s tropical and humid climate, interestingly it is not indigenous to the region. The rubber tree originally comes from South America. Europeans gathered its seeds, germinated them in Kew Gardens (near London), and then spread the rubber tree throughout the world to places like Malaysia, India, Congo, and Liberia.
Controversies and Challenges
Establishing the plantations displaced many people and brought significant changes to local settlements. Residents of Harbel in Margibi County were forced to relocate to nearby Grand Bassa County. The displaced were not adequately compensated for their losses and continue to face uncertainty regarding land tenure. Their new settlement has the Bassa name Queezahn.
In addition to agricultural land itself, Firestone infrastructure required additional clearing. In a 1941 agreement with the United States Government, Firestone imported caterpillar tractors and bulldozers to clear 25,000 acres of land along the Farmington River for the construction of Liberia's first airport, now Roberts International Airport.
Firestone employees distributed pamphlets, conducted soil surveys, and provided credit for harvesting materials to local producers. They also supplied seedlings and high-yielding budded trees. Still, Firestone remained the sole purchaser of rubber in Liberia until the mid 1950s, exerting significant control over the Liberian economy as a result. Additionally, the ownership of native Liberian rubber production predominantly resides with a small group of individuals who control the majority of the productive land.
Liberian Firestone workers accuse the company of serious labor abuses, including exploitative child labor, which they claim amount to modern-day slavery. Workers specifically claim that Firestone's high daily quotas force them to employ their own children, subjecting them to grueling and dangerous work conditions.
In May 2006, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) released a report detailing the state of human rights on Liberia's rubber plantations. According to the report, Firestone managers in Liberia admitted that the company does not effectively monitor its own policy prohibiting child labor.
In reply to the charge of exploitative child labor, company management claimed that workers would bring their own children to assist them despite the company not endorsing such behavior. However, workers claimed that management's high daily quotas force them to bring their children to work as their only means of meeting quotas.
During the litigation, in April 2006 Firestone was granted its request to transfer the case from California to Indianapolis, Indiana. Ultimately, Firestone won the case.
Environmental Impact
Monoculture agriculture, as practiced on the Firestone Plantations, often leads to a reduction in biological diversity, altering the environment and facilitating the spread of insects and disease. During periods of heightened rubber demand, such as the Second World War, Firestone workers implemented intensive tapping techniques that proved particularly detrimental to the health of the trees.
To facilitate clearing, tappers applied the herbicide 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, a substance that has since been phased out due to recognized health and environmental risks. Similarly, the fungicide captafol, extensively used during that period, has been discontinued in the United States since 1987 due to its carcinogenic properties. Captafol often spilled into and onto harvesting materials of Firestone workers.
Bridgestone Acquisition and Current Operations
Fast forward several decades to the 1980s when 40% of latex used in the US came from Liberia, and Firestone was bought by the Japanese conglomerate Bridgestone in 1988.
During this period of growth and expansion, the Bridgestone family of companies also lost its founder- Shojiro Ishibashi died on Sept. The Chemical and Industrial Products Technical Center was built inside the plant in Yokohama, Japan to serve as the technology and innovation hub for the company's growing Diversified Products business.
In 2019, Firestone made what has now become a controversial decision to outsource some of its tapping to contractors, many of whom are retired company employees. The company made the decision at a time when the price of rubber on the global market was significantly low. Rubber theft within the concession area was uncontrollably high.
"The outsourcing of tapping to contractors in 2019 was a difficult but necessary decision.” Said Mr. Gunton. He narrated that Firestone’s goal in 2019 was to continue operations while mitigating the risk of closure by working with the Liberian Government, teammates, and stakeholders to find creative solutions to remain a viable entity.
The introduction of Contract Tapping within the Concession is pursuant to Section 7.1 of the Concession Agreement, which permits Firestone Liberia to: “Engage in the production and operate its business in the manner that, in its sole discretion, it deems best suitable.”
Donations to Princeton University
Princeton’s indebtedness to Firestone entwines Nassau Hall in the Company’s record of white supremacy. A century after slavery ended in the United States, Princeton continued to profit from the system of forced labor that Firestone devised in Liberia. The story of Firestone, Liberia, and Princeton reveals how racist exploitation entangled and enriched Nassau Hall through the 20th century.
In 1944, the Firestone family gave $1 million to build the Harvey S. Firestone Library was only the crowning gift in a relationship that spanned decades. Donations flowed from the Company itself, Firestone family members, and a bevy of philanthropic entities, including the Firestone Foundation.
Between 1946 and 1972, the Firestones gifted Princeton more than 24,000 shares of common stock of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, making at least one transfer every year between 1956 and 1970. The shares’ number and worth may exceed the recorded amounts.
Three Princeton presidents-Dodds, Goheen, and Bowen-cultivated four decades of friendship and collaboration with the Firestones. As the family’s most loyal and generous donor to Princeton, Harvey Jr. orchestrated the gift that funded Firestone Memorial Library.
Princeton and Firestone conceived of the library as a joint enterprise, whose profits would accrue to both. The Firestones’ gift was a windfall for Princeton. The next year, Dodds dedicated the Firestone Company’s new research laboratory in Akron, Ohio.
On June 16, 1947, all five Firestone sons gathered to see the library’s cornerstone laid. Recent years have revealed how ingeniously Firestone and Princeton made their plan. In 2015, Princeton received the largest gift in its history: the $300 million rare books and manuscripts collec...
Table: Donations made to Princeton by Firestone family members and corporate entities, 1957-1967
| Year | Donor | Amount ($) | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Harbel Corporation | 250,000 | Expansion of Firestone Memorial Library |
| 1958 | Leonard K. Firestone ('1933) | 100 | Charles Caldwell Memorial Fund |
| 1959 | Firestone Tire & Rubber Company | 85,000 | First installment of $250,000 for new engineering building |
| 1963 | Firestone Foundation | 20,000 | Unrestricted gift to capital campaign |
| 1967 | Roger S. |
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