GANTA, Nimba – Nimba Superintendent Fong G. Zuagele has called on aggrieved workers at the Nimba Rubber Incorporated, formally known as the Cocopa Rubber Plantation Company, to exhibit restraint and look up to the central government to address their plight.

On Saturday, March 19, 2016, workers set up road blocks in demand of salary arrears owed to them for the past five months by the management.

In an interview with journalists in Cocopa over the weekend, Zuagele said he sympathized with the aggrieved workers. He called on them to remain calm as the county’s administration engaged the management of NRI to resolve the matter.

“I feel very bad that the people have not taken pay for so long now,” Zuagele told reporters.

However, he blamed the situation on the dropped price of rubber on the international market. The price of a ton of rubber has since dropped from US$1,000 to US$500 dollars.

“That’s truth. We are all tired of the situation,” he said. “But the real situation here is that the price of rubber has dropped so much that no rubber farm anywhere in the world is making enough money.”

To calm the workers, the superintendent promised the workers that he would liaise with the management to provide rice for the workers within two days.

According to Billson S. Larkpor, one of the workers at the farm, he has served the farm for at least ten years, and his experience with the current administration is more frustrating than the past ones.

“Since I came to this plantation in 2006, management has come, and management has gone, but the situation still the same,” Larkpor said. “But presently as we speak, maybe the government of Liberia took it as something not to their interest. I see NRI as the worst of all.”

Another worker, Wilson Z. Kollie, compared the work situation to slavery.

He added that when rice distribution and salary disbursements are delayed, the information is not communicated to the workers. Instead, they are left in limbo. Kollie feels that all these are caused by the government of Liberia, which designated NRI as caretaker management of the farm.

“I blame the government for all that is going on this farm by NRI management,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zuagele has said that his office is going to work in line with the central government for investors that would take over the farm. He said having good investors take over the farm would bring some relief to the everyday work management crisis at the farm.

Featured photo by Arrington Ballah