Pineros article response: Letter to the editor of the Sacramento Bee

         (The Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters is a multicultural membership organization of forest workers and non-timber forest products harvesters covering Ca., Oregon, Wash.) 

As the only membership organization of forest workers and harvesters in the Pacific West, we would like to commend Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua on their excellent investigative series, The Pineros, that reveals the realities of our work and lives.  We also appreciate the fine editorials calling for enforcement of existing labor laws and reforms to address working and living conditions that are often unsafe, unfair, and dehumanizing.  In honesty, we were initially reluctant to cooperate with Mr. Knudson and some of our members outright refused to speak to him.  Unfortunately, there is a long history of forest workers being misrepresented, misinterpreted, and misled by journalists, researchers, academics, and others who claim they want to “help” us or tell our story. 
As the series so aptly describes, there are myriad difficulties and dangers inherent in working in the woods.  Many of these will not change…mountain slopes will continue to be steep and rocky, rain, snow, icy winds and unbearable heat will continue to beat down on our hardhats, and crummy rides to work will continue to be lengthy and on dangerous roads.  Recognition of these adversities is a good first step in promoting the need for better investment in and oversight of occupational safety for forest workers.
As important though is the recognition that this work of planting, thinning, and other forestry tasks demands real skills and competencies. To state that our work in the woods has been greatly undervalued is an understatement.  Respect and much more appropriate compensation would go far towards addressing many of the workers’ issues.  The Federal agencies have the opportunity to lead this effort by honestly addressing how their contracting practices have created and continue to maintain an underclass industry. 

Denise Smith
Executive Director
Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters