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Two-dozen Hispanic forestry workers told high-ranking Bush administration officials about wrongs they suffered at the hands of unscrupulous contractors on federal forests in Oregon.

The tree planters, stand thinners and slash burners said they're driven in cramped vans three or four hours to work sites - where they work three hours - then return home, and they're only paid for their time on the forest floor.

"We go home and the bills are waiting for us. How are we going to pay them?" said Marcos, a Medford worker who would not give his full name because he feared retaliation from the contractors he works for.

The job is dangerous and injuries frequent, the workers told Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey and Labor Department Deputy Administrator Alex Passantino, who appeared at the forum held in a University of Oregon building near Autzen Stadium.

Workers are cut by chain saws, whipped by branches and hit by falling trees. And when they're hurt, the unscrupulous foreman turns his back, the workers said.

"They don't want to take you in for treatment," said Medford worker Martin Carrera. "They want to wrap you up with a rag and hope you get better." The workers say they are taken from job to job, sometimes 20 or 30 hours from home. The contractor puts them up with six or seven men to a hotel room. They must cook their own food outdoors, no matter the weather.

They work eight, 10 or 12 hours a day, get 10 minutes for lunch and no breaks. When they are thirsty, they must stoop and drink from forest streams. "They don't treat us like people. They treat us like slaves," said a woman who identified herself as Francisca, who testified for her husband, who was traveling to a job.

Hugo Peregrino, a manager with Mount Saint Helens Reforestation, traveled from Washington to testify.

"Everything they have said is true," he told the officials. "We have been suffering for 20 years and it will continue to happen if you don't do something." Rey and Passantino told the crowd of 80 contractors, forest workers, academics and government officials that the Forest Service and the Department of Labor spent 2006 working on the problem - and the agencies will use information gathered at the forum to improve working conditions in the coming season.

"It's clear there's a lot more that needs to be done," Rey said.

Over the past year, the Forest Service reviewed all 150 active reforestation contracts. The Department of Labor conducted two dozen site inspections and expects to do a similar number this year. The inspections yielded four cases where contractors were shorting the pay of their workers, said Ron Hooper, the Forest Service director of acquisitions management. Two were in Idaho, one was in Utah and the fourth was in New Mexico, he said. The agency ordered back pay for the workers and in some instances levied fines.

Officials created a wallet-sized card in English and Spanish it plans to deliver to reforestation workers that explains their rights under federal law. It includes a toll-free phone number to report abuses.

The Forest Service also revised its contracts to educate contractors on what they must pay. It's the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour on private land and the typical wage for the job - usually $11 or $12 an hour - on public land.

The contracts also spell out what safety gear the contractors must provide and what rules apply to housing and travel conditions. The goal was to "take the vagueness and generalities out of the contracts and make them very specific," Hooper said.

The Department of Labor made a "red flag" checklist to help Forest Service employees spot, document and report violations of labor laws. The Forest Service agreed to give labor officials a list of where the forestry contracts are to be carried out, so they know where to inspect. The contracts require the companies to keep good wage and hour records, so inspectors can verify that the workers are paid properly. "We are serious about this and we are putting accountability into the process," Hooper said.

Still, federal officials admit the task of enforcement is difficult. The work sites are remote and difficult for inspectors to reach. Hispanic workers who are unfamiliar with the concept of worker rights are reluctant to report abuses to the government. The contractors' ranks have frequent turnover. "The bad contractors are moving in quickly and moving out quickly - taking advantage of the workers - and they're gone before you guys know it," Philomath contractor Lee Miller told the group.

Denise Smith, coordinator of the Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters, said the inspections are just scratching the surface. "It takes a lot more than showing up one day when everybody knows you're coming," she said.

But Rey said the reforms are going to take time. "We have to sustain this over several years," he said. "One season by itself is not going to make the systemic change."

The contractors told Rey the system of strict low-bid contracting the Forest Service follows has given the advantage to fly-by-night contractors.

They submit bids that are based on exploiting undocumented or guest workers who are unwilling or unable to seek redress for poor conditions.

No legitimate contractor can compete, said Nick Cicero, a forestry worker from Ashland. "The prices they do per-acre is physically impossible," he said.

But Rey said the Forest Service's hands are tied. The courts have ruled that the agency can't reject a low bid because it believes the price is too low.
Strong enforcement would help, said Enrique Santos, an interpreter for the harvesters' alliance. "You sting a couple of those suckers and this would be straightened out in no time," he told the federal officials.