Dear NACLA,
Thanks for your letter and the
copies of the Report where my
essay appeared. (Jan.-Feb. 1980)
It is an excellent abridgement. Ac-
tually, the article improved in the
English version.
The situation in Central America
worsens every day. During the last
two weeks the Universidad de San
Carlos de Guatemala, a focus of
resistance to the military dictator-
ship, has been brutally attacked.
Para-military squads murdered six
university professors and several
leaders of the students’ federation.
The current situation in Guatemala
resembles the worst period of the
Amin dictatorship in Uganda or
that of Somoza in Nicaragua.
Two days ago, the Dean of the
university Law School, Dr. Hugo Rolando Melgar, was murdered
early in the morning in front of his
house. Just today, a prominent
economist, Dr. Julio Alfonso
Figuera, director of the Institute of
Social and Economic Research,
was machine-gunned. Is there
anything you could do to de-
nounce this genocide?
Edelberto Torres Rivas
San Jose, Costa Rica
43update * update * update * update
More on the Undocumented
Pacific Northwest Timber Industry
Dear folks,
Here in the Northwest, tree
planting and reforestation is a
significant business. In the past
four years, exploitation of un-
documented workers has in-
creased several fold. Also, Mex-
ican workers are attracted to the
NW because of the relatively more
oppressive conditions in
Southwest agriculture and the
higher pay scale for planting trees.
Some of our fears are that wood
workers see undocumented as a
threat to their livelihood and are
urging “la migra” (INS) to crack
down. It is the old story of dividing
workers for the few crumbs on the
table.
Another major problem is the
use of chemicals and herbicides to
control brush. Even though it is an
occupational hazard for all
workers, Anglos have easier ac-
cessibility to information about its
harmful effects and better choices
of work areas. The situation of the
undocumented workers is dif-
ferent. They will be forced to work
sprayed areas and spray the
chemicals, endangering their lives.
Transnational corporations now
function on a global strategy for
timber resource recovery. The
Pacific NW is almost depleted and
big companies are moving out.
The NW timber literally provided
the capital for national companies
to become world-wide corpora-
tions. Now that the NW economy
is headed for a tailspin, largely
because of conditions they
created, the corporations are leav-
ing.
F.L.
Eugene, Oregon
Dear folks at NACLA,
Just read with interest your
Report on undocumented workers.
The interest was compounded for
me because I am a worker in a dif-
ferent industry, at the other side of
the country, attempting to deal
with a similar situation.
The Pacific Northwest is one of
the national centers of the timber
industry. Washington and Oregon
rank perennially among the top five
states in acreage planted yearly.
The acreage planted is divided
about evenly between public
holdings (U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and
State Forestry holdings) and
private lands owned primarily by
large multinationals such as
Weyerhauser, Boise Cascade, ITT-
Rayioner, Georgia Pacific, Crown
Zellerbach and International
Paper.
Most of the work is done on
contract basis. The landowner
finds a labor contractor. Payment
is made to the contractor either by
the acre, or per-thousand trees
planted basis. The contractor pays
the workers either by the hour or
by the number of trees.
For a potential contractor, tree
planting is easier to enter than the
apparel industry. The planting
stock is supplied by the contrac-
ting agency. Items such as
raincloth, boots and workcloth are
paid by the workers. Planting tools
cost about forty dollars per worker.
And a panel truck or a used van is
all that is needed to transport the
workers to the sites. In brief, labor
represents over 90% of the direct
costs of tree planting.
The labor force in reforestation
has traditionally consisted of
young white males entering the
job market, older white transients
and unemployed loggers. Labor
turnover is high and few skills are
needed. The pay scale is on the
lower end of the pay scale for the
industry, $5.50 to $7.50 an hour.
Work is seasonal and the laborers
are not organized.
As the prices for all sorts of
wood products increased
dramatically over the past five
years, the importance of reforesta-
tion efforts to get logged-off land
back into production has increas-
ed as well. Reforestation has
become, pardon the pun, a growth
industry.
This rapid expansion has open- ed the industrial labor pool to
worker-owned cooperatives and
contractors employing Mexican
immigrants. There are about a dozen coop- contractors active in Northwest-
ern forestry. These cooperatives,
consisting of up to fifty members,
primarily young whites of both
sexes, see themselves as progres- sive forces, both politically and with regard to working practices.
The number of contractors
employing Mexican immigrants is
larger. Some of the contractors
employ six or eight crews of ten to fifteen workers. These contractors
are generally white while the
foremen in charge of the crews
are Mexican Americans.
There is very little dialogue be-
tween the contractors and the workers cooperatives. The con-
tractors see the cooperatives as an economic threat. And the work
force remains separated by
language, cultural differences and the isolation of the worksites.
In the public sector, contractors
desiring to perform a particular
piece of work submit sealed secret
bids. Contracts are awarded to the
lowest reasonable bidder. For
many contractors the use of un-
NACLA Reportupdate * update . update * update
documented immigrant labor is a
way to get a leg up on the competi-
tion. Substandard wages are paid,
employment taxes are avoided
and crews can be deported as a
project nears completion, forego-
ing severance pay and, in some in-
stances, payment of wages alto-
gether. The public contracting
agencies, faced with rising
reforestation costs and budget
constraints, favor these low
prices.
In the private sector the
multinationals prefer to negotiate
with contractors individually. A
given tree farm will tend to use the
same contractor for several
years. The contractor becomes an
agent of the company, recruiting
and managing labor.
The multinationals tend to
prefer Mexican crews. They work
hard, are dependable and reliable.
As transient workers they don’t
fuss about working conditions or
practices. Many timber companies
treat their tree seedlings with
Thiram, a rodenticide. They also
make heavy use of chemical
defoliants, dilute concentrations of
the Agent Orange used in Viet-
nam. Frequently, they require
planting crews to work in areas
which have been recently treated
with these substances.
The worker-cooperatives have
organized a boycott of contracts
for sites where these substances
are being used. Mexican workers
continue to work in these condi-
tions and are sought out by the
timber companies.
Increased participation of Mex-
ican workers in reforestation is ex-
pected in the near future. Contrac-
tors have begun to use Mexican
crews on tree thinning projects,
trail construction and cedar
shingle bolt salvage.
If the worker-cooperatives are
to survive and become a mean-
ingful force in the forestry industry
they will have to establish com-
munication with the Mexican
workers. Both groups will have to
unite to realize their common in-
NACLA
NEWS
Summer Office Hours
During the months of June, July
and August our offices will be open
to the public Monday to Thursday
from 1 pm to 6 pm and Fridays
from 3 pm to 6 pm.
NACLA ON AGRIBUSINESS–
Order Now!
We are taking orders for
terest in a safe and secure work
environment and to break down
the present dynamics of competi-
tion placed between them.
Menu
