Monrovia, March 28 -- When the Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) changed ownership in August of last year, many dared to hope for a long-overdue turnaround in the living and working conditions of the company workers.

Socfin, a Luxembourg multinational group that owned SRC, had just divested its investment, leaving behind years of unresolved social and infrastructural problems. But barely four months later, echoes of optimism are reverberating among workers as issues of decrepit housing units and a plethora of other problems left behind by Socfinaf are being addressed.

"What we are seeing from the new SRC management is a genuine commitment to solving all the legacy issues that existed under the previous regime," says Henry George, a tappe...