The_Open_Door_deel1

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all offered staff positions or restricted applications to Liberian
nationals only. Of the numerous logging companies, for
instance, only three (East Asiatic Company, Cestos Nimba Corporation,
and Vanply of Liberia) placed advertisements as a
means of hiring employees, but of the 29 different positions
offered only 14 were staff positions and in only 10
advertisements the qualification "Only Liberians need apply" was
included. The fact that the logging operations are generally of
a simple nature being virtually limited to the selection,
felling, transportation and exportation of (valuable) logs
partly explains the low number of logging companies in this
connection.
Three of the six foreign-owned plantation companies did not use
advertising as a method to recruit people during this threeyear
period investigated: the B.F. Goodrich Company, The Liberia
Company, and Liberia Operations Inc. Virtually all
advertisements of the remaining three companies were placed by
the Firestone Plantations Company; the Salala Rubber Company and
the Liberia Agricultural Company being responsible for only 3
and 1 advertisements respectively, (which involved only one
staff position - in the Salala Rubber Company) (9). The
importance of the Firestone Plantations Company in this respect
is to a great extent explained by the company's size and its
relatively large manpower needs.
All four operating' iron ore mining companies used advertising as
a means to publish employment opportunities provided by them.
In this case too the number of vacancies offered was closely
related to the overall manpower needs of the companies involved,
the LAMCO J.V. and the Bong Mining Company being the two most
important advertisers. The Liberia Mining Company only placed
advertisements for the hiring of teachers. This is explained
by the phasing out of the company and the termination of its
mining activities in early 1977 (10).
Five foreign-owned industrial companies only turned to the
local newspapers to publish employment opportunities but none
of the vacancies was a staff position (Monrovia Breweries,
Exchem, Cemenco, the Liberia Refining Company, and the Alan
Grant Company). Three trading companies also placed
advertisements to recruit employees but of them only the United
States Trading Company offered staff positions to which "Only
Liberian Citizens Need Apply" (77),
Altogether, only nine companies tried to hire local qualified
staff through advertisements in local newspapers. In fact, only
four companies were important in this respect: the Firestone
Plantations Company, the LAMCO J.V., the Bong Mining Company,
and the United States Trading Company (a Firestone-subsidiary).
It should be realized that advertising in itself does not say
everything about a company's recruitment policy. In the first
place, as stated before, not all advertisements included the
limiting qualification "Only LiLerian Citizens Need Apply",
Secondly, not all factors which determine the actual hiring of
candidates are known. The following may illustrate this: