In a letter to Firestone’s management in Japan USW International President Leo W. Gerard pledged the USW’s support for the Firestone employees and expressed outrage over reports of police brutality towards striking workers and their families, some of whom have been arrested and detained as they seek to exercise their rights.

“This situation is not acceptable to the rubber workers in Liberia or to the international trade union movement,” Gerard wrote. “We call on Firestone to immediately and without delay recognize the results of the July election and begin good faith negotiations with the union on a collective bargaining agreement.”

Gerard called Firestone’s failure to recognize the results of a free and fair union election a flagrant violation of International Labour Organization standards.

“While your company has reaped millions of dollars in profit from Liberia, you have handed back just pennies to the workers,” the letter states. “And now you are compounding these violations of the dignity of workers through your efforts to stymie the freely expressed wishes of the workers for an independent union.”

On July 7, 2007, workers turned out in massive numbers to participate in the first genuinely free and fair union elections in the 81-year history of Firestone’s operations in Liberia. By a landslide margin these workers voted for leaders who are committed to building an independent and democratic union, one that will truly represent the interests of its members.

The USW represents 850,000 workers in the United States and Canada employed in the metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and other industries as well as the service and public sectors, including about 7,000 members employed at Bridgestone-Firestone facilities in the United States.