Firestone is correct that "the amount of work that each employee is expected to complete, as well as the conditions of that work, is established through negotiations between the company and FAWUL [the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia." In fact, FAWUL and the company are negotiating a new contract right now.  Consumers around the world who e-mailed Firestone are encouraging Firestone to use these negotiations as an opportunity to finally end the exploitative and unpopular system of transporting latex on the plantation.

We expect Firestone to continue to negotiate with the union in good faith.  We encourage the company management to take a leadership role in implementing safer and less burdensome systems for workers.

It's clear that Firestone is paying close attention to your messages!  However, they clearly refuse to respond to the specific issue of how their workers are forced to carry heavy loads in order to enrich the company.  This system of work is unacceptable and needs to end.  We must keep up our actions to show solidarity with workers in Liberia.  We've come so far in this campaign already, but we need to take this next important step forward.

After several missed deadlines, the chocolate industry finally developed  its so-called "certification" system, which are surveys of labor conditions on cocoa farms conducted by the governments of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.  The "certification" program does not contain any standards for labor rights protections and has been critiqued by observers for a range of other problems.   As part of the system, the certification reports produced by the governments of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire must then be verified to ensure that the data is accurate.

It is tough to see U.S. union workers passed over for a million dollar contract especially in a time of economic downturn. But, the Milwaukee ordinance does not call for U.S.-made uniforms. Instead, the city takes a longer-term and broader view by requiring workers everywhere to get a good deal—including wages that will raise them and their family out of poverty—if they make products for the city. The city’s goal is less to strengthen the local economy or the U.S. economy in the short-term than to help create a more fair global economy, which, long-term, also helps U.S. workers.