By Fatoumata Fofana

At long last, the Firestone Agricultural Workers' Union of Liberia (FAWUL) and the management of the Firestone Rubber Plantations Company have reached an agreement, wherein key areas of benefits including increment in wages for the workers would be granted.

During a brief meeting on Monday, August 4, 2008 with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a delegation of the Union headed by its Secretary-General, described the 'Collective Bargaining Agreement', which is expected to be signed tomorrow, Wednesday, August 6, 2008, as a 'success and victory' for workers of the Plantation.

Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Wleh Badio disclosed this to reporters during the regular Executive Mansion's press briefing held on Monday, August 4, 2008, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Capitol Hill, Monrovia.

Quoting leaders of the Union, Mr. Badio outlined wages, health and safety, education, housing, transportation, child labor, among other things, as some of the key areas covered by the agreement.

“Among the benefits, there will be a 24 percent increment in wages for daily wage workers. The increment represents an average over a three-year period. Salary workers will receive a 19.5 percent increment covering 2007 to 2009,” Mr. Badio quoted leaders of the Union as saying.

The increment would be retroactive as of 2007, meaning that workers will receive a 19-month pay increase retroactively, officials of the Union further informed the President.

Among other benefits, according to the Union, the management of Firestone would build three new high schools on the plantation.

The workers expressed gratitude to the Liberian leader for creating the conditions under which workers could freely negotiate with the management of Firestone, and for setting the standards for the welfare of workers of the country.

There had been a longstanding dispute between FAWUL and the Management of Firestone over a 37.5 percent reduction in their wages as a result of the conversion of their salaries from Liberian dollars to United States dollars in the early 1990s, when the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) controlled the area under its National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government (NPRAG).

The workers all along had felt that they were being cheated. Following that, a series of strikes occurred over the Union's leadership, the last of which brought the current leadership of FAWUL to power.

However, this problem was finally put to rest by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.