Former employees, grandchildren and family members of the erstwhile National Iron Ore Company (NIOC) are crying on the CDC-led government and partners to address issues relating to benefits the Liberian government and Western Cluster owe them.
James T. Mafarlon, General Chairman of the former NIOC workers, described as inhumane the treatment given to the local employees at the time. “After the civil war, the company paid off all expatriates, including their plane tickets to countries of origin, and the balance cash was deposited into government`s account to settle payments of the local employees. Till now not a cent has been paid to anyone,” General Chairman Mafarlon stated.
“Some of the former employees are dying in abject poverty. When we noticed that government was delaying to pay, a court action was taken against the government by the workers at the People`s Debt Court. The decision was ruled in favor of the workers—that all be paid their just benefits, including 6% interest to every dollar in United States dollars.
“We are not going to cease our advocacy. We will not sleep until benefits and arrears owed the former employees are paid. We are watching keenly during this electioneering period to vote out people that have stood in our way, denying us our just benefits,” Mafarlon told the Liberian people when he appeared on a local radio in Monrovia on Monday.
Mafarlon said after the government at the time admitted in 2001 that it had used the money intended to pay the workers’ severance pay, the government signed a promissory note stating that in the event the company does not resume operations, as expected, all assets of the company would be sold and proceeds paid to the workers.
The former NIOC general secretary indicated that the promissory note, a copy of which has been accessed, further revealed that any company that would succeed NIOC, any upfront payment made to government would be used to settle payments of all severance and other benefits of the workers from 1985 up to 2001. With that, out of 100%, only 1% of that was paid.
In an attempt to seek further redress, the group has officially filed a complaint to the international community through the embassies of the government of the United States, Great Britain, Sweden, the donor community, including the World Bank country office, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the African Development Bank (AfDB), to intervene and avoid confrontation.
Marfarlon said it is frustrating to know that the untimely shutdown of the company on March 31, 1985—only to blame it on the low price of iron ore on the world market—is a calculated plan to deny Liberian workers of severance and other benefits, thereby subjecting them to abject poverty and disease.
General Chairman Marfarlon further lamented, “There are widows, children and grandchildren who are lingering across the country in abject poverty, some of whom acquire their education under unbearable conditions. Also, some of our colleagues who were parents and grandparents have died out of frustration while expecting the government to pay us all, after we have all outlived our usefulness working for the company over the years.”
With the rising cost of goods and services, impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, an underprivileged group, including women and children residing in a former mining community in northern Grand Cape Mount County, have described living conditions as unbearable and worsening day by day.
Nearly 250km northwest of Monrovia, Kongoe, the former mining community in Mano River, is among several rural communities across the country where the COVID-19 vaccine is yet to be administered. Bad roads, lack of basic social services, including safe-drinking water, quality education and healthcare facilities, are several challenges facing the community, mostly former NIOC workers, their families and children.
Some of the women from Kongoe community and residents and family members of former employees of the then National Iron Ore Company (NIOC) converged in Monrovia to protest against a successor company.
The NIOC, which was principally owned by the Government of Liberia (GOL), commenced mining operations in the 1960s, shut down mining and shipping operations in March 1985 due to low price of ore on the international market.
Speaking recently when the group converged at the offices of Western Cluster in Monrovia to remember loved ones who were victims in the 1982 No-Way-Camp landslide where more than 1,000 residents died, Konnah King asserted that she and her children are being hardly hit by the impact of the virus, citing lack of safe-drinking water and money to send her children to school.
Konnah, 63, mother of eight children and also grandmother of eight, says women, children and the elderly are drinking from open water wells, citing increase in water-borne diseases.
“We are drinking from open wells every day. We and our children, along with our grandchildren, always have running stomach in the area,” Konnah revealed further.
The widow, whose husband was a former employee of the then NOIC, died while running after the same severance benefit, added that Kongoe community residents are not beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Konnah lamented, “We did not take the COVID-19 vaccine that people are talking about all around here. Since we do not have a good clinic in the community, when we get sick we are always treated in the homes of community health workers (black bag holders). Any medicine that they give us, it is what we take.
“Since my husband died in 2012, it has been very hard for me to send my children and grandchildren to school. My husband left running behind this severance pay and benefits, and he didn`t get a cent before he got sick and passed.
Alice Dossen, daughter of the late David Slober, a former NIOC worker in the control room of the company at the time, laments that her father was waiting the much -talked -about severance pay. She said her father labored to feed the family but died from abject poverty alongside some of his late colleagues.
“My father labored doing odd jobs just to feed his children, and he later got sick and died from cold. My mother has also come down with strokes. I am struggling with her to get treatment because there is not health center in Kongoe. Right now, she is being treated in the home of a gentleman (black bag man),” Alice said as she broke down with tears pouring from her eyes.
When the company was closing down in 1985, all the 1,820 employees did not receive any severance and other fringe benefits. Based upon this, an agreement was reached with the workers that they would be reemployed upon the resumption of operation by NIOC or a successor company, which has not been the case as promised in the agreement.