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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 2016)
Street Roots • Feb. 12-18, 2016 TIMBER, from page 5 were withdrawn after an appeal. Of those inspected during the past five years, 63 percent of forestry contractors were cited with violation and deemed non- compliant with health and safety law. For sawmills, 67 percent of inspections yielded violations. Violations cited ranged from the employers’ failure to produce documentation of safety and hazardous chemical training and first aid certification to inadequate protective gear, observed dangerous behavior, missing safe guards on machinery - which in some cases had cost a worker a serious injury that led to the inspection - and unsafe transportation when carting workers to jobsites all over the state. OSHA’s Beck said the biggest challenge in regulating the reforestation industry is finding the remote worksites in the middle of the forest But it’s gotten easier since the U.S. Forest Service began posting a public list of its active worksites in Region 6 national forests in 2011. This information sharing stemmed from meetings of federal and state government agencies and advocates that have been held twice a year since 2009 in an effort to find ways to more effectively protect forestry workers. Carl Wilmsen, director of Northwest Forest Worker Center said the other positive thing to come out of these meetings was increased oversight by the U.S. Department of Labor. “When Jeff Genkos was the regional director for the Wage and Hour Division in Portland, he actually took this issue to heart and did delegate to his staff to start doing inspections of forestry contractors, and they did quite a few,” he said, adding that attention from the federal Labor Department has waned since Genkos’ departure. Since 2004, the Department of Labor has closed 19 investigations of wage theft at reforestation contractors in Oregon. Two familiar names were among those investigated: Summitt Forests and Cutting Edge Forestry. Wage and Hour investigations found both had violated multiple labor laws, including overtime pay. At the conclusion the investigations, Cutting Edge Forestry agreed to pay 26 employees $2,000 in back wages, and Summitt Forests agreed to pay 233 employees $29,000 in back wages. Throughout the investigation, OSHA had no direct contact with Ponce-Leon’s family. A letter was sent to his next of kin - in English, with his name misspelled and to a faulty address. Neither Cutting Edge Forestry nor Summitt Forests responded to interview requests from Street Roots. ilmsen said that for years, Northwest Forest Worker Center has argued to the U.S. Forest Service that it should stop doing business with contractors that abuse their employees. “They have the authority to enforce the provisions of their own contracts, because it is written into the contracts that the contractors are required to comply with all relevant labor laws,” he said. W News/Poetry Street Roots asked the Bureau of Land But neither Cutting Edge Forestry nor Management what action it took after Summitt Forests has popped up on the list Ponce-Leon died on its property, likely due since Ponce-Leon’s death. to the negligence of Cutting Edge In April, 2013, while thinning trees for Forestry, which was cited for violations the U.S. Forest Service in the Fremont- related to his death. BLM spokesperson Winema National Forest near Klamath Maria Thi Mai said when contractors are Falls, Juan Garibay was struck in the back found in violation of the law, it is noted and shoulders by a falling 81-foot tree, and is taken into consideration on future breaking his neck. His co-worker was not deals. following the basic two-tree-length rule of The year following forestry, meaning Ponce-Leon’s death in workers should be two 2011, Cutting Edge tree lengths apart when Forestry won twice as felling trees. many contracts under the "There has always been The site supervisor U.S. Department of the a certain percent that watched the whole thing Interior, which houses happen from 15 feet does everything right, BLM, and also increased and a whole bunch that away, but did nothing to the number of contracts stop it, according to don't" won under the U.S. state reports. The Department of MICHAEL WHEELER OSHA inspector Agriculture, which houses OWNER OF GRAYBACK FORESTRY discovered the company the Forest Service, safety policy was, “Be according to InsideGov. careful and take care of OSHA hasn’t inspected each other,” rather than Cutting Edge Forestry following adequate since Ponce-Leon’s death more than four procedures. He also discovered the years ago. employer knew about the two-tree-length It didn’t visit Summitt Forests again rule. Fremont Forest Systems Inc. was either until an injury prompted an cited for three violations. It received a 60 investigation in 2015 - earning the percent reduction in penalties due to its contractor another fine - this time $250 size, bringing its fine to $6,100, the largest for not taking 21-year-old Juan Estaban fine issued in a single investigation Encarnacion, who had cut through his boot between 2011 and 2015. and left big toe with a chainsaw, to the Fremont Forest Systems didn’t come up nearest medical facility one hour away in on the inspection list in the years following Lakeview. Instead, because the crew had its violations either. completed the job, the foreman took him Lomakatsi Restoration Project is a on a four-hour ride to Medford before reforestation nonprofit out of Ashland that getting him medical attention. prides itself on paying its workers well, Beck said both companies had provided training them properly, and serving as an proof that they’d corrected their behavior example of how the industry should be after Ponce-Leon’s death, so no follow-up operating. investigations were warranted. According to data compiled for Street “We can’t just arbitrarily go out there,” Roots by the Oregon Department of he said. “They’ve got to show up on our Consumer and Business Services, scheduling list” Lomakatsi had less than half the number Each year, OSHA has a programmed list of workers’ compensation claims between of 50 logging and reforestation operators it 2000 and 2011 than both Summitt Forests can inspect. If a contractor isn’t on the list and Cutting Edge Forestry, and a good it can’t be subjected to an inspection track record with OSHA. But Lomakatsi unless there’s a death, serious injury, popped up on OSHA’s annual inspection complaint or referral. The list is primarily list three times during the past five years. composed of logging companies, with When asked asked to name another about 10 to 20 reforestation contractors company that follows Oregon’s labor laws each year over the past five years. and treats its workers well, Lomakatsi But there is a fatal flaw in the way director Mark Bey named Grayback OSHA determines its annual list. One of Forestry Inc., which also popped up on the major factors in determining who gets OSHA’s annual inspection list three out of inspected is the number of disabling the past five years, although Grayback workers compensation claims that have Forestry had a significant number of been filed. But the agency is well aware workers’ compensation claims. that fear of retaliation in the industry is Both were inspected three times. Both widespread, and that many workers are passed twice with flying colors, and discouraged - under fear of losing their neither was cited for violations warranting job or of being deported - from filing such monetary fines when it was cited. a claim at all. “There has always been a certain This means companies successfully percent that does everything right, and a warding off workers compensation claims whole bunch that don’t,” said Grayback by way of intimidation are not only keeping owner Michael Wheeler. He said lately it’s their costs down, but are rewarded with a starting to feel like it was in the late 1980s lower chance of being inspected by OSHA again - with many contractors choosing to as well. flat-out ignore labor laws. This might be why two reforestation Research conducted by the Northwest operators that have reputations for Forest Worker Center has indicated treating their workers well have shown up widespread abuse and dangerous working on OSHA’s inspection list a combined total conditions in the industry in the region. of six times between 2011 and 2015. Many of the state’s 284 contractors have Violation history is also calculated into never been inspected. OSHA’s scheduling determination, said emily@streetroots.org Beck. Page 7 Storybook Creek by Avendor The silver salmon leaps from the stream to catch the berries of wisdom. The grass of the riverbank is emerald green holding him in its bosom. The bridge overheads’ rotting wood crumbles into the water. The king of the creek summons the beaver for the whereabouts of his daughter. The limbs of the trees with their arms outstretched embrace the whole affair. Then the daughter returns with the supper she earned cleverly outwitting a hare. The light of the sky grows fainter and nigh as the sun sits down to rest The bards of the moon play together in tune till that sphere reaches her crest. And all through the night the salmon’ll hum bright and the king watch oe’r his domain. Til’ the morning comes when the daughter will run cheerfully down its mane. Untitled by Cathy E. I exhale and chills creep through my abdomen I inhale and my heart skips a beat I’m thinking of you and not meaning to listening to you speak of other women all the while hints of jealousy seeps into my heart I laugh nervously; hoping he is not concrete but, deep down inside I wish it was me.
