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were withdrawn after an appeal.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.