Liberian plant workers clash with police-multi-day strike at the Firestone Rubber plantation

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.kansascity.com/438/story/86679.html

Posted on Fri, Apr. 27, 2007

Liberian plant workers clash with police
By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH
Associated Press Writer

A multi-day strike at the Firestone Rubber plantation in the West African nation of Liberia turned violent Friday as police clashed with striking workers, leaving at least six people wounded, officials said.

Between 6,000 and 8,000 workers at the plantation - a subsidiary of Japan-based tire giant Bridgestone Corp. and Liberia's largest employer - have been striking since Tuesday. They are demanding the removal of a top manager among other items, Labor Minister Kofi Woods said.

The Firestone plantation offers one of the few steady jobs for unskilled laborers in war-torn Liberia. The West African nation emerged from more than a decade of civil war in 2003 and has had a democratically elected government in place for just over a year.

On Friday, strikers erected roadblocks and started to stone a force of Liberian police and United Nations peacekeepers called to the site to disperse the crowd, Police Chief Munah Sieh said. She said police released tear gas into the crowd and fighting broke out. Sieh said three of the six wounded were police officers.

One of the injured, 50-year-old worker Anthony Saah, said he was attacked by police.

"I was not involved in the riot. The police rushed on me and said I was one of those throwing stones; they hit me with sticks on my head," he said. Saah was awaiting treatment at a hospital for head wounds.

FULL story at link.