SACRAMENTO BEE

November 14, 2005

Editorial

Enforcing labor laws

Time for a crackdown on contractors

No one has yet invented the automaton that can do the work of thinning and planting trees. People do the work, and, at remote sites deep in the nation's forests, they need adequate living conditions, safety training and equipment, and safe transportation to and from the job.

Yet, as "The Pineros: Men of the Pines" by The Bee's Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua shows, no one seems to be looking after the people who do the work. The working conditions are wretched. They don't have to be.

The U.S. Forest Service and other agencies have power under the Service Contract Act, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and a host of other laws to enforce proper working conditions. But enforcement is rare and inconsistent. The tools exist; what's needed is willpower.

Contractors recruit workers primarily from Mexico and Central America and, thus, can expect few to complain about pay or conditions for fear of losing their visas, being deported or blacklisted from future work. It is the government that has to ensure that work done for the U.S. Forest Service on public lands lives up to American standards.

Twelve years ago, the U.S. House Committee on Government Operations held hearings and expressed outrage at Forest Service indifference to the "inhumane and appalling treatment" of migrant reforestation workers. It pointed to "inexplicable bureaucratic resistance" and "outright refusal" to stop illegal practices by reforestation contractors.

Little has changed.

Everyone continues to pass the buck. Field reports related in The Bee series show ground-level Forest Service inspectors witnessing injuries; squalid living conditions; unreported working hours; absent, inadequate or unused safety equipment; lack of food and water. Yet little, if anything, gets reported to supervisors or other agencies. A Forest Service spokesman said health, safety, pay and immigration violations are not Forest Service problems.

Other labor and safety agencies say that if no one reports violations, they just don't know about them. If a contractor fails to report injuries, such as a worker blinded by a snapping branch - oh, well. The idea of spot inspections or coordination among agencies to assure better reporting seems utterly foreign.

Even where violations do get reported, the information goes into a black hole. At the Department of Labor, for example, the wage and hour division can repeatedly cite a company for shorting worker pay. But another branch, the employment and training administration, continues to certify the contractor to hire more migrant reforestation workers.

These are Keystone Kops antics, but it's not funny. The bureaucratic runaround is hurting people.

It is time for Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth to sit down with Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Acting Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement John Clark to deal with this issue. They need to coordinate a response to contractors who don't pay their workers what they're owed, who skimp on safety, who violate federal laws with impunity.

The best way for the Forest Service to stop its contractors from violating laws is simply to suspend or "debar" them from future work - an all-too-rare occurrence. The agencies need to set up and maintain a common database on reforestation contractors and workers - including violations.

It is time for Congress to investigate why there has been inaction on this problem, to hold hearings and to insist on cleaning up this business.

When the U.S. government itself fails to enforce federal laws on public lands, it sends a signal to employers not to worry about enforcement on private lands as well. The Forest Service started a pattern of abuse (by using questionable contractors on the cheap over the years); so is it any surprise that timber companies can pick up on the practice? The unscrupulous contractors and the scofflaws can dominate the field. That has to end.

People hired by U.S. employers to regenerate our national forests deserve better treatment at the hands of the U.S. government.