Dear NACLA, Thanks for your letter and the copies of the Report where my essay appeared. (Jan.-Feb. 1980) It is an excellent abridgement. Ac- tually, the article improved in the English version. The situation in Central America worsens every day. During the last two weeks the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, a focus of resistance to the military dictator- ship, has been brutally attacked. Para-military squads murdered six university professors and several leaders of the students' federation. The current situation in Guatemala resembles the worst period of the Amin dictatorship in Uganda or that of Somoza in Nicaragua. Two days ago, the Dean of the university Law School, Dr. Hugo Rolando Melgar, was murdered early in the morning in front of his house. Just today, a prominent economist, Dr. Julio Alfonso Figuera, director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research, was machine-gunned. Is there anything you could do to de- nounce 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. In the past four years, exploitation of un- documented workers has in- creased several fold. Also, Mex- ican workers are attracted to the NW because of the relatively more oppressive conditions in Southwest agriculture and the higher pay scale for planting trees. 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. It is the old story of dividing workers for the few crumbs on the table. Another major problem is the use of chemicals and herbicides to control brush. Even though it is an occupational hazard for all workers, Anglos have easier ac- cessibility to information about its harmful effects and better choices of work areas. The situation of the undocumented workers is dif- ferent. They will be forced to work sprayed areas and spray the chemicals, endangering their lives. Transnational corporations now function on a global strategy for timber resource recovery. The Pacific NW is almost depleted and big companies are moving out. The NW timber literally provided the capital for national companies to become world-wide corpora- tions. Now that the NW economy is headed for a tailspin, largely because of conditions they created, the corporations are leav- ing. F.L. Eugene, Oregon Dear folks at NACLA, Just read with interest your Report on undocumented workers. The interest was compounded for me because I am a worker in a dif- ferent industry, at the other side of the country, attempting to deal with a similar situation. The Pacific Northwest is one of the national centers of the timber industry. Washington and Oregon rank perennially among the top five states in acreage planted yearly. The acreage planted is divided about evenly between public holdings (U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and State Forestry holdings) and private lands owned primarily by large multinationals such as Weyerhauser, Boise Cascade, ITT- Rayioner, Georgia Pacific, Crown Zellerbach and International Paper. Most of the work is done on contract basis. The landowner finds a labor contractor. Payment is made to the contractor either by the acre, or per-thousand trees planted basis. The contractor pays the workers either by the hour or by the number of trees. For a potential contractor, tree planting is easier to enter than the apparel industry. The planting stock is supplied by the contrac- ting agency. Items such as raincloth, boots and workcloth are paid by the workers. Planting tools cost about forty dollars per worker. 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. The labor force in reforestation has traditionally consisted of young white males entering the job market, older white transients and unemployed loggers. Labor turnover is high and few skills are needed. The pay scale is on the lower end of the pay scale for the industry, $5.50 to $7.50 an hour. Work is seasonal and the laborers are not organized. As the prices for all sorts of wood products increased dramatically over the past five years, the importance of reforesta- tion efforts to get logged-off land back into production has increas- ed as well. Reforestation has become, pardon the pun, a growth industry. This rapid expansion has open- ed the industrial labor pool to worker-owned cooperatives and contractors employing Mexican immigrants. There are about a dozen coop- contractors active in Northwest- ern forestry. 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. The number of contractors employing Mexican immigrants is larger. Some of the contractors employ six or eight crews of ten to fifteen workers. These contractors are generally white while the foremen in charge of the crews are Mexican Americans. There is very little dialogue be- tween the contractors and the workers cooperatives. The con- tractors see the cooperatives as an economic threat. And the work force remains separated by language, cultural differences and the isolation of the worksites. In the public sector, contractors desiring to perform a particular piece of work submit sealed secret bids. Contracts are awarded to the lowest reasonable bidder. For many contractors the use of un- NACLA Reportupdate * update . update * update documented immigrant labor is a way to get a leg up on the competi- tion. Substandard wages are paid, employment taxes are avoided and crews can be deported as a project nears completion, forego- ing severance pay and, in some in- stances, payment of wages alto- gether. The public contracting agencies, faced with rising reforestation costs and budget constraints, favor these low prices. In the private sector the multinationals prefer to negotiate with contractors individually. A given tree farm will tend to use the same contractor for several years. The contractor becomes an agent of the company, recruiting and managing labor. The multinationals tend to prefer Mexican crews. They work hard, are dependable and reliable. As transient workers they don't fuss about working conditions or practices. Many timber companies treat their tree seedlings with Thiram, a rodenticide. They also make heavy use of chemical defoliants, dilute concentrations of the Agent Orange used in Viet- nam. Frequently, they require planting crews to work in areas which have been recently treated with these substances. The worker-cooperatives have organized a boycott of contracts for sites where these substances are being used. Mexican workers continue to work in these condi- tions and are sought out by the timber companies. Increased participation of Mex- ican workers in reforestation is ex- pected in the near future. Contrac- tors have begun to use Mexican crews on tree thinning projects, trail construction and cedar shingle bolt salvage. If the worker-cooperatives are to survive and become a mean- ingful force in the forestry industry they will have to establish com- munication with the Mexican workers. Both groups will have to unite to realize their common in- NACLA 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. NACLA ON AGRIBUSINESS-- Order Now! We are taking orders for terest in a safe and secure work environment and to break down the present dynamics of competi- tion placed between them.
