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Page 4
Street Roots • Feb. 19-25, 2016
Two Lomakatsi employees clear and bum brush at Table Rock in Southern Oregon. Lomakatsi is a nonprofit that collaborates with native tribes, cities and other nonprofits to complete restoration
projects while providing benefits to the area communities.
Timber’s fallen: Part III
Grassroots efforts show improving working conditions in Oregon's reforestation industry is possible
THE SERIES
This is the final
installment of a
three-part series
on the working
conditions and
treatment of
immigrant forestry
workers.
Read previous
articles in this
series at hews.
streetroots.org.
BY EMILY GREEN
what he saw.
“The land was being devastated by big
industry, and the workers were being
arko Bey was sitting in on the
exploited,” he said.
squatters’ movement and
Three decades later, healthier forest
organizing soup kitchens on New
policies have emerged to circumvent
York City’s Lower East Side when he set his
wholesale devastation of the land, but abuse
sights on the Pacific Northwest.
and exploitation of immigrant forestry
He was 19 when he arrived in Oregon.
workers
endures.
He heeded to work, so he took a job
Advocates and reforestation operators say
planting trees.
effective policy changes will need to come
Today he coordinates large-scale
from
the top down - whether that means
ecological restoration projects in Southern
changes in government contracting policies,
Oregon, but back then, he was an idealistic
a better strategy for enforcing labor laws,
kid who just wanted to stop clear-cutting.
stiffer penalties for serious safety violations,
It was 1987, and an increasing number of
or all of the above.
tree planters and other reforestation
During its September meeting, Oregon’s
workers in America’s forests were Hispanic
Environmental Justice Task Force listened
immigrants. It was a shift from 10 years
to Latino forest workers and farmworkers
earlier when hippies and other Anglo
testify about their experiences with wage
outliers were filling these jobs.
theft, dangerous working conditions,
Bey worked across Oregon and Northern
exposure to toxic chemicals, and retaliation
California throughout his 20s under a
for reporting violations and injures.
handful of reforestation contractors.
Since then, the task force has been
He said he enjoyed the camaraderie
formulating recommendations for better
among crewmembers but was troubled by
STAFF WRITER
M
protecting these vulnerable workers, which
it will forward to Gov. Kate Brown.
Task force chair Ben Duncan said in an
email, “The testimony we heard in
September moved all of us, for its passion,
its pain, and perhaps most importantly, for
our work, for hope in a better future for
those in our state who are most impacted
by environmental and workplace hazard.”
He said the task force will work with
state agencies to provide more information
to workers about their rights and-will
examine current enforcement investigations
to ensure training is adequate and
protective of workers.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, who’s taken up
issues around H-2B guest workers, said
more needs to be done to protect all Oregon
workers.
The H-2B non-agricultural worker visa
program allowed for more than 800 foreign
workers, primarily from Latin America, to
fill forestry jobs in Oregon in 2013. Riders
See TIMBER, page 5