Forest worker review sought

By Tom Knudson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published Saturday, November 19, 2005

Juan Pablo Ramírez, above left, thanks Mariano Matias for visiting him in a Seattle hospital in February, nearly a year after he was injured in a van crash that killed five fellow Guatemalan forest workers in Washington. Pablo was in the hospital for a follow-up exam relating to his injuries. Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua

California Rep. George Miller and three other congressmen on Friday called for the House Committee on Resources to conduct oversight hearings into the abuse of Latino forest workers on U.S. Forest Service land.

The congressman said a three-part Sacramento Bee series published earlier this week, "The Pineros: Men of The Pines," "painted a disturbing picture" of mistreatment and injuries unfolding on jobs overseen by Forest Service officials and paid for with tax dollars.

"This is a very serious investigation," the congressmen wrote, referring to the stories. "And we believe it demands a serious response from the committee."

Contacted later in Washington, Dan Jiron, national press officer for the Forest Service, said agency officials plan to testify if hearings are held and are already drawing up plans to address problems revealed in the articles that affect an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Latino pineros who work in America's woodlands.

"This is certainly something we need to look at - and that's what we're doing," Jiron said.

Dan Robertson, president of the Northwest Reforestation Contractors Association, said mistreatment of Latino workers by those who receive the government contracts is common. Robertson said he welcomed the scrutiny and encouraged Congress to dig deep.

"They need to get down and talk to people who are actually in the reforestation industry to really understand the way these people are abused because it's hidden very well," Robertson said.

Related Document

Click image to see the letter calling for oversight hearings

The Bee investigation uncovered a tangle of abuses, from unsafe working conditions to wage violations, faced by migrant workers on public as well as private land. The Bee also found that even legal guest workers fall prey to injuries and mistreatment - and that responsibility for Latino forest laborers has fallen into a bureaucratic void.

Six federal departments, as well as many state agencies, share legal responsibility for the forest workers, but actual oversight is rare.

Medford, Ore., resident Santiago Calzada told The Bee that in two decades of thinning and planting across the West, he had seen a government safety inspector just once.

"Forest work is tough," Miller said in a statement. "But it is precisely because the jobs are dangerous that the Forest Service needs to live up to its responsibility to make sure these men and women get appropriate safety equipment and training, and to make sure they are paid fairly."

A veteran Democratic congressman from Martinez, Miller also made it clear that congressional inquiries are unlikely to stop with this first request for hearings and could extend to other agencies that oversee migrant forest labor.

"We should start by taking up this issue in the Resources Committee as soon as possible," he said, "and we should follow up with (other) agencies and departments as appropriate."

The Bee articles - and photographs - drew immediate and sustained response from readers. Some said they wanted to help send Santa Pablo Bautista - an undocumented 16-year-old forest worker injured in a van accident on her way to work, and saddled with debt from her journey north - home to Guatemala.

A former timber worker simply wanted to donate his size 11 logging boots to a migrant forest worker in need. Institutions responded, as well, including two interested in developing programs to improve forest worker health and treatment. Dozens of e-mails poured in from around the country.

"What makes these exploitations so despicable is that I and my fellow paddling and hiking enthusiasts have always felt that the national forests were places to escape to away from the same tragedies and horrors that now we are confronted with in our national forest," wrote William Van der Ven, who identified himself as an author and guide.

Migrant worker activists who have helped the pineros over the years, applauded the chance to broaden awareness of the problems.

Two laborers jump on the back of a van used to transport the forest workers to another work site in the Tahoe National Forest in June. Crashes involving the vans, which are often poorly maintained, are the top cause of death among Latino forest workers, also known as pineros, or "men of the pines." Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua

"Congratulations on one of the most thoroughly researched and comprehensive reports that I have ever seen," wrote Lori Elmer, an attorney in North Carolina, who has sued one of the nation's major forest contractors. "The public needed to hear the forestry workers' story."

The request for oversight hearings came in a letter sent Friday to House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. Besides Miller, it was signed by Tom Udall, D-N.M., Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, and Dale Kildee, D-Mich., all members of the committee.

"If the American people value the work performed by the laborers hired by Forest Service contractors - and we believe that they do - it is this committee's responsibility to ensure this program is properly administered and that the laborers are not abused," the lawmakers wrote.

Some of the abuses were detailed in Forest Service documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that show the agency's own inspectors observe wretched conditions and risky work environments but don't intervene.

Records also show the agency has frequently hired contractors that have histories of workplace violations.

"It is flat-out unconscionable that the U.S. government would continue to rehire contractors who subject foreign guest workers to dangerous and sometimes deadly working conditions," Miller said in his statement.

Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth already is moving to make changes, said Jiron, the press officer. "He sees that there are issues. He wants to look at how do you make an institutional difference."

About the writer:

• The Bee's Tom Knudson can be reached at (530) 582-5336 or tknudson@sacbee.com.