The AFL-CIO honored the rubber workers’ union, the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL), with its 2007 George Meany–Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award for courage, innovation and leadership... The 4,000 workers at Liberia’s largest rubber plantation...are now running their own union. To gain an independent voice, the workers staged several strikes...[during which] workers were intimidated and beaten. Several were killed... [FAWUL President Austin Natee]...says the workers joined together to fight what he calls “modern-day slavery.”...[and that] the company failed to provide them with basic safety equipment...