Street Roots • Feb. 12-18, 2016
News
TIMBER, from page 4
pesticides.
Research conducted by the Northwest
Forest Worker Center out of its Medford
office indicates many workers don’t have
adequate training or safety gear, and that
they are often subject to abuses such as
working under pressure to move
dangerously fast for long hours without rest
breaks, fear of retaliation for reporting
injuries and wage theft.
Much of their work is taxpayer-funded,
occurring under government contracts on
public lands, such as in Ponce-Leon’s case.
During a Feb. 5 Environmental Justice
Task Force meeting in Salem, top state
industry regulators, OSHA Administrator
Michael Wood and Bureau of Labor and
Industry Administrator Brad Avakain, joined
an ongoing discussion on issues facing
forestry and farmworkers that was brought
to policymakers by advocates and workers.
They were there to provide the task force
with insight into what their agencies do.
They both explained while it’s not their
job to determine whether someone is in the
country legally, it is their responsibility to
ensure that all people employed in the state
are treated lawfully.
But fear of retaliation makes proving
some cases in forests and on farms a
challenge, they agreed. Their agencies often
rely on employee cooperation when they are
building a case and on complaints from
workers to point them in the direction of
employers who are breaking the law.
While OSHA inspects for safety and
health violations, BOLI enforces wage and
hour violations, such as wage theft and
denied rest breaks. While about 73 percent
of reforestation worksite inspections by
OSHA are unrelated to a complaint or
injury, BOLI’s enforcement is almost
entirely complaint driven.
Avakian told the task force that about 15
years ago, BOLI had 14 staff dedicated to
farm labor. They were out in the fields and
labor housing, building relationships with
immigrant farmworkers.
“We really had boots on the ground in
respect to seeing what the conditions were
like for workers,” he said. “Through budget
cuts that occurred a decade ago - we really
have one person (dedicated to farms) for
the entire state of Oregon right now.”
He said he needs workers to report
abuses to BOLI so he can file a
Commissioner’s Complaint, which would
launch a civil rights investigation, but it’s
employer specific.
BOLI received 64 wage claims from the
reforestation sector between 2010 and 2015
- and 111 allegations of wage violations
other than unpaid wages, such as failure to
provide meal and rest periods. During that
same period, however, there were only
three retaliation cases filed with BOLL
'T'he state OSHA inspector who
X investigated Ponce-Leon’s death
determined it could have resulted from a
chainsaw kickback caused by any one of a
number of incomplete cuts on limbs, brush
and trees in his work area.
He noted other employees on the jobsite
weren’t cutting trees safely either, and the
supervisor hadn’t seemed to notice or take
any corrective action.
Ultimately, OSHA cited Ponce-Leon’s
Page 5
A reforestation
worker carries a
piece of wood away
from a controlled
bum on private
forest land that’s
part of the
Collaboration
Conservation
Partnership
Initiative across
Southern Oregon
and Northern .
California.
PHOTO COURTESY OF
LOMAKATSI
RESTORATION PROJECT
with 3 percent of all jobsites inspected each
year.
Jeff Nelson owns Cutting Edge Forestry,
which was subcontracted with his brother
Scott Nelson’s company, Summitt Forests
Inc., on the project Ponce-Leon was working
on when he died. Workers for both
companies -were onsite that day.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LOMAKATSI RESTORATION
PROJECT
A Lomakatsi employee thins trees with a
chainsaw in the Ashland Watershed.
employer, Cutting Edge Forestry Inc., for
five violations at the conclusion of its
investigation. Two were for not training him,
which likely contributed to his death.
This month in Salem, legislators are
determining whether or not to increase the
state’s damages cap of $500,000 in wrongful
death lawsuits.
Cutting Edge Forestry got off easy. There
was no lawsuit, and it was charged $510 in
fines.
“Our penalties are the lowest penalties
for a first-time violation in the country,” said
OSHA Administrator Michael Wood. “That’s
sort of a trade off against our high
enforcement presence.”
He said jobsites are more likely to be
inspected in Oregon than in any other state,
employees under the table, so it isn’t always
clear how many employees they have.
Wood said while many of the fines may
start low, they increase steeply when there
is a repeat violation.
Street Roots reviewed all OSHA
inspections of reforestation worksites and
sawmills, another forestry sector that
In his field notes, the OSHA inspector
employs many immigrant workers, that were
indicated none of the workers on site were
conducted over the past five years.
familiar with Division 7 rules - the state
Among all the inspections, there were
laws governing safe forestry activities.
only three examples of repeat violations
Summitt Forests was also fined for v
cited: two at Eugene-based Goshen Inc.’s
violations related to Ponce-Leon’s training,
Junction City sawmill and one at Goshen
but also for violations cited for its
Forest Products LLC in Eugene.
employees’ failure to fall trees safely at the
In 2010, OSHA fined Goshen Inc.’s,
same site, for a total of $1,035 in penalties.
sawmill $275 when an inspector observed
According to InsideGov, Summitt Forests
employees failing to properly shut down
has won government contracts worth
equipment before performing repairs. In
$82.7 million since 2000, and Cutting Edge’s
2013" it was fined less, $240, for what was
government contracts during the same
categorized as a repeat of this violation. The
period were worth $24.6 million.
other repeat violation, for failing to have
Advocates working on behalf of
reforestation workers, as well as current and safe guards to protect workers from
hazardous machinery, went up from $100 in
former forestry workers, told Street Roots
2010 to $240 in 2013.
they think government penalties issued to
At Goshen Forest Products, a fine for
contractors who break the law are too low
failing to protect
and equate to a slap
workers
from
on the wrist.
"Our penalties are the lowest
sprocket wheels
Wood said the
penalties for a first time violation
and chains went up
size of the employer
in the country."
from
$125 in 2009
is one of the biggest
MICHAEL WOOD to $600 in 2011.
factors in
OSHA ADMINISTRATOR
Over the past
determining the
five years, 5
size of OSHA’s fine.
“Our penalties are designed to motivate
percent of the state’s 284 reforestation
employers, and it takes a lower penalty to
employers listed with Oregon Employment
motivate a mom and pop operation than it
Department were inspected each year.
does a larger corporation. We would look at
Some of the inspections were not of
the severity of the potential outcomes and
active worksites, but of the company’s office
we’d look at the probability of injury. We
and equipment storage.
also would take into account the employer’s
The median fine for a category-serious
good faith effort to comply,” he said.
violation, which is violation that could result
OSHA Statewide Safety Enforcement
in a serious injury, was $100 among
Manger Gary Beck explained fines are
reforestation contractors. For sawmills, the
predetermined by administrative rules, and
median of 325 citations for “serious”
if the employer has less than 25 employees,
violations was $150. In some cases fines
penalties can be reduced by 60 percent
See TIMBER, page 7
But some contractors pay their