Human Rights Violator Sponsors Super Bowl Halftime Show
While millions tune in to the Super Bowl, here is a reminder about human rights and workers' rights violations, social and economic injustice, and environmental exploitation that should affect the hearts and minds of those watching.
From the AFL-CIO blog comes this:
"While Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are pounding out the hits at the Bridgestone Firestone Super Bowl XLII halftime show today in Arizona, half a world away, 4,000 workers will be pounding at the bark of rubber trees in the hot African sun, pulling out the raw materials that will make millions for the tire maker.....
"Since 1926, Bridgestone Firestone has operated the world’s largest rubber plantation in Liberia, with widespread child labor, widespread abuse of workers’ rights and environmental damage, according to activists with the Stop Firestone Coalition. United Steelworkers (USW) and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center found horrid living conditions on the plantation....
"Workers at the plantation, located in Harbel—named for the tire maker’s founder Harvey Firestone, and his wife, Idabelle—earn a little more than $3 a day, and then only if they meet a burdensome quota. They are forced to carry heavy loads of rubber in metal pails on their backs and walk for miles to weighing stations. They live in shacks with no electricity, no running water or sanitary bathroom facilities. Their children have no access to a high school education....."
It is irresponsible and unacceptable for the National Football League to agree to the Bridgestone-Firestone, an exploiter of its Liberian employees' human and workers' rights, sponsorship of the Super Bowl half-time show. This is an affront to Americans' belief in human rights and the dignity of the individual. Shame on the NFL and Fox network.
Bridgestone-Firestone will also be sponsoring next year's Super Bowl halftime show. As the AFL-CIO blog reports: "Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus, a project of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, called on National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell to revoke Bridgestone Firestone’s sponsorship of next year’s halftime show."
Regular working Americans should turn off the TV during halftime in protest against the NFL's agreement to have Bridgestone-Firestone, a human rights violating company, sponsoring any part of the Super Bowl.
From the AFL-CIO blog comes this:
"While Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are pounding out the hits at the Bridgestone Firestone Super Bowl XLII halftime show today in Arizona, half a world away, 4,000 workers will be pounding at the bark of rubber trees in the hot African sun, pulling out the raw materials that will make millions for the tire maker.....
"Since 1926, Bridgestone Firestone has operated the world’s largest rubber plantation in Liberia, with widespread child labor, widespread abuse of workers’ rights and environmental damage, according to activists with the Stop Firestone Coalition. United Steelworkers (USW) and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center found horrid living conditions on the plantation....
"Workers at the plantation, located in Harbel—named for the tire maker’s founder Harvey Firestone, and his wife, Idabelle—earn a little more than $3 a day, and then only if they meet a burdensome quota. They are forced to carry heavy loads of rubber in metal pails on their backs and walk for miles to weighing stations. They live in shacks with no electricity, no running water or sanitary bathroom facilities. Their children have no access to a high school education....."
It is irresponsible and unacceptable for the National Football League to agree to the Bridgestone-Firestone, an exploiter of its Liberian employees' human and workers' rights, sponsorship of the Super Bowl half-time show. This is an affront to Americans' belief in human rights and the dignity of the individual. Shame on the NFL and Fox network.
Bridgestone-Firestone will also be sponsoring next year's Super Bowl halftime show. As the AFL-CIO blog reports: "Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus, a project of the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, called on National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell to revoke Bridgestone Firestone’s sponsorship of next year’s halftime show."
Regular working Americans should turn off the TV during halftime in protest against the NFL's agreement to have Bridgestone-Firestone, a human rights violating company, sponsoring any part of the Super Bowl.
Posted by Kaz at 2/3/2008 3:26 PM 
Categories: labor, Global Engagement, Ethics, Events and Premieres
Categories: labor, Global Engagement, Ethics, Events and Premieres
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