Foreign guest laborers take jobs most Americans don’t want. But those invited to work in the woods have hardly been offered our hospitality. On public and private land, they suffer injury, abuse, even death.
Stories by Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua — The Sacramento Bee
Published Sunday, November 13, 2005 — 1 of 3 parts
During the day, the men swung machetes and worked in the woods. At night, they lay in ragged tents, wrapped themselves in layers of clothing and nearly froze.
As the migrant workers suffered, U.S. Forest Service officials in Idaho supervising the work were taking notes. But their primary concern was trees, not people. “Pace too slow,” one jotted in a memo. “Foreman not active enough vis a vis quality, production, direction.”
Pineros – pine workers, as Latino forest laborers are known – have long battled abusive working conditions. But today, there is a new edge to the drama: Much of the mistreatment is unfolding inside a government program that invites foreign workers to the United States to fill labor shortages.
Read the full article here.
