The Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) was forced to cease its operations following a violent protest by workers on June 27, 2024. The protest, which resulted in the destruction of property and the company’s administrative headquarters, stemmed from workers’ frustrations over management’s perceived failure to compensate them for missed work during a prior strike.
In an official statement issued on Saturday, June 29, the company’s management attributed the closure to the workers’ violent behavior, which involved physical altercations with senior staff, threats of harm, and the destruction of senior staff residences and vehicles. The memo emphasized that operations would be suspended until further notice.
The workers of the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) engaged in a violent protest on Thursday, leading to chaos and destruction at the plantation. The protest was fueled by the workers’ dissatisfaction with the management’s handling of their absence during a previous protest action.
The protesters targeted the SRC administrative headquarters, setting some buildings on fire and causing property damage.
The workers had been on a week-long strike, citing alleged exploitation and poor labor conditions that had persisted for several years without resolution from the management.
Their demands included improvements to housing facilities, timely replacement of tapping tools, access to medical treatment, subsidized rice, transportation to work, and fair bonus calculations, among other grievances.
Following negotiations between the SRC management and the Salala Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (SAWUL), an agreement was reached to address some of the workers’ concerns and continue discussions during the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) process.
However, tensions resurfaced on Thursday, June 27, when the workers insisted on being compensated for the five days they were out protesting, a demand that was reportedly resisted by the Plantation Manager.
The refusal of management to this demand enraged the protesters, led by one of the tappers, a Nigerian national only identified as Okoro, who early Thursday morning ransacked the SRC administrative headquarters and set ablaze the administration building that housed the offices of the company’s general manager and other top administrative staff.
Subsequently, the protesters threw stones at the windows of other buildings, looted bags of rice, and proceeded to the senior staff housing area where they set ablaze the home and the assigned vehicle of Plantation Manager Sangeeth Sathyan, resulting in their destruction.
The general manager, Ajith Kumar, and the plantation manager, Sathyan, were rescued from the aggrieved workers by the company security after they attempted to stab him.
Law enforcement intervention led to arrests of individuals linked to the violence, with efforts to restore order and address the unlawful behavior.
The Liberia News Agency quoting authorities of the crime services division of the Liberia National Police said about 8 persons including two females are part of several people arrested so far after yesterday’s incident in the vicinity of the Salala Rubber Corporation.
Union leadership and other stakeholders have condemned the violence and stressed the importance of a lawful resolution to the conflict.
“We strongly condemn the barbaric acts carried out at the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) on 27th June 2024 which involved workers of the Plantation in an illegal strike action which destroyed the Corporation’s infrastructures and documents as well as kidnapping of some key Management staff and threatening the life of the General Manager,” the Rubber Development Fund, Incorporated (RDFI) Board of Directors said in a statement over the weekend.
The RDFI called for an expedient investigation into the violence and to bring the perpetrators to book.
As SRC faces an uncertain future, the well-being of workers and the company’s operations remain in question.
However, the management, in its memo, has committed to offering appropriate compensation to employees as mandated by regulations, with involvement from relevant government and labor authorities, including the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Labor, and the General Agricultural and Allied Workers Union of Liberia (GAAWUL).
