According to
PoliticalAffairs.net, Bridgestone-Firestone employees at the company’s LaVergne, Tennesee plant have been ordered to
stop collecting donations at the factory’s gate for struggling rubber workers in Africa.
The charity drive was
intended to help the company’s own employees who work in a Liberian plant for about $3 per day. Reportedly the plant’s
workers recently went on strike after Bridgestone-Firestone elected to withhold in excess of one-third of their
paychecks for ‘unexplained deductions.’ The writer further notes that the company’s Liberian facility is under fire for
human rights violations–namely making use of child labor and use of toxic pesticides.
Collecting donations for
worthy causes has apparently been done before at the plant for years, including on behalf of ill United Steelworkers
members, other striking local union chapters and victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Editor’s
Note: It would appear from the text that the article’s author made no effort to contact
Bridgestone-Firestone for comment or confirmation, a disconcerting
omission.
[Source:PoliticalAffairs.net]