Readers Respond
S., P.L.
Dear NACLA, Thanks for your letter and the copies of the Report where my essay appeared. (Jan.-Feb. 1980) It is an excellent abridgement. Actually, the article improved in the English...
...The pay scale is on the lower end of the pay scale for the industry, $5.50 to $7.50 an hour...
...Even though it is an occupational hazard for all workers, Anglos have easier accessibility to information about its harmful effects and better choices of work areas...
...Many timber companies treat their tree seedlings with Thiram, a rodenticide...
...The situation of the undocumented workers is different...
...The labor force in reforestation has traditionally consisted of young white males entering the job market, older white transients and unemployed loggers...
...For a potential contractor, tree planting is easier to enter than the apparel industry...
...These contractors are generally white while the foremen in charge of the crews are Mexican Americans...
...Substandard wages are paid, employment taxes are avoided and crews can be deported as a project nears completion, foregoing severance pay and, in some instances, payment of wages altogether...
...Just today, a prominent economist, Dr...
...F.L...
...Contractors have begun to use Mexican crews on tree thinning projects, trail construction and cedar shingle bolt salvage...
...In the public sector, contractors desiring to perform a particular piece of work submit sealed secret bids...
...The landowner finds a labor contractor...
...Some of the contractors employ six or eight crews of ten to fifteen workers...
...Mexican workers continue to work in these conditions and are sought out by the timber companies...
...The contractor becomes an agent of the company, recruiting and managing labor...
...Payment is made to the contractor either by the acre, or per-thousand trees planted basis...
...In the past four years, exploitation of undocumented workers has increased several fold...
...The Pacific NW is almost depleted and big companies are moving out...
...The current situation in Guatemala resembles the worst period of the Amin dictatorship in Uganda or that of Somoza in Nicaragua...
...Increased participation of Mexican workers in reforestation is expected in the near future...
...Julio Alfonso Figuera, director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research, was machine-gunned...
...Most of the work is done on contract basis...
...Both groups will have to unite to realize their common inNACLA 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...
...Washington and Oregon rank perennially among the top five states in acreage planted yearly...
...A given tree farm will tend to use the same contractor for several years...
...Two days ago, the Dean of the university Law School, Dr...
...Transnational corporations now function on a global strategy for timber resource recovery...
...Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and State Forestry holdings) and private lands owned primarily by large multinationals such as Weyerhauser, Boise Cascade, ITTRayioner, Georgia Pacific, Crown Zellerbach and International Paper...
...As the prices for all sorts of wood products increased dramatically over the past five years, the importance of reforestation efforts to get logged-off land back into production has increased as well...
...The situation in Central America worsens every day...
...There is very little dialogue between the contractors and the workers cooperatives...
...This rapid expansion has open- ed the industrial labor pool to worker-owned cooperatives and contractors employing Mexican immigrants...
...For many contractors the use of unNACLA Reportupdate * update . update * update documented immigrant labor is a way to get a leg up on the competition...
...Work is seasonal and the laborers are not organized...
...It is the old story of dividing workers for the few crumbs on the table...
...In the private sector the multinationals prefer to negotiate with contractors individually...
...During the last two weeks the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, a focus of resistance to the military dictatorship, has been brutally attacked...
...Reforestation has become, pardon the pun, a growth industry...
...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...
...Also, Mexican workers are attracted to the NW because of the relatively more oppressive conditions in Southwest agriculture and the higher pay scale for planting trees...
...Eugene, Oregon Dear folks at NACLA, Just read with interest your Report on undocumented workers...
...The contractor pays the workers either by the hour or by the number of trees...
...Labor turnover is high and few skills are needed...
...The public contracting agencies, faced with rising reforestation costs and budget constraints, favor these low prices...
...The planting stock is supplied by the contracting agency...
...Para-military squads murdered six university professors and several leaders of the students' federation...
...Hugo Rolando Melgar, was murdered early in the morning in front of his house...
...The interest was compounded for me because I am a worker in a different industry, at the other side of the country, attempting to deal with a similar situation...
...NACLA ON AGRIBUSINESS-Order Now...
...Frequently, they require planting crews to work in areas which have been recently treated with these substances...
...Now that the NW economy is headed for a tailspin, largely because of conditions they created, the corporations are leaving...
...They work hard, are dependable and reliable...
...And the work force remains separated by language, cultural differences and the isolation of the worksites...
...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...
...The number of contractors employing Mexican immigrants is larger...
...Contracts are awarded to the lowest reasonable bidder...
...Planting tools cost about forty dollars per worker...
...Items such as raincloth, boots and workcloth are paid by the workers...
...They will be forced to work sprayed areas and spray the chemicals, endangering their lives...
...The Pacific Northwest is one of the national centers of the timber industry...
...We are taking orders for terest in a safe and secure work environment and to break down the present dynamics of competition placed between them...
...The NW timber literally provided the capital for national companies to become world-wide corporations...
...The contractors see the cooperatives as an economic threat...
...The worker-cooperatives have organized a boycott of contracts for sites where these substances are being used...
...There are about a dozen coop- contractors active in Northwestern forestry...
...As transient workers they don't fuss about working conditions or practices...
...If the worker-cooperatives are to survive and become a meaningful force in the forestry industry they will have to establish communication with the Mexican workers...
...The acreage planted is divided about evenly between public holdings (U.S...
...The multinationals tend to prefer Mexican crews...
...Actually, the article improved in the English version...
...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...
...Another major problem is the use of chemicals and herbicides to control brush...
...Is there anything you could do to denounce 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...
...They also make heavy use of chemical defoliants, dilute concentrations of the Agent Orange used in Vietnam...
Vol. 14 • May 1980 • No. 3
