Union Buried Evidence of Firestone Support of Warlord After Labor Deal

It’s a shame when bad actions are concealed and covered up, and it seems particularly bad in this case, reported by Jonathan Jones and T. Christian Miller in ProPublica:

In 1996, Firestone, one of the world’s largest tire-makers, was locked in a grueling labor dispute with the United Steelworkers of America. The union portrayed it as a struggle between blue-collar workers and a company that was aiming to slash the pay and benefits of its employees. Thousands of workers went on strike, and the union mounted a consumer boycott of Firestone products and those of its Japanese-owned corporate parent, Bridgestone. There were protest demonstrations, too, including a “black flag” motorcycle brigade at the nation’s most famous auto race, the Indianapolis 500.

The steelworkers – who had begun representing Firestone employees after a merger with another union, the United Rubber Workers, in 1995 – also began looking into the company’s…