Migrant forest workers win $2.75 million in back wages
Thursday, February 25, 2010
By: Heather Benno
In brief
Immigrant forestry workers won $2.75 million in a law suit settlement against an Arkansas tree-planting company, Superior Forestry Services. Superior hires immigrant guest workers to perform forestry work for federal contracts.
The workers alleged that Superior stole their wages and paid workers less than the minimum or prevailing wage. Supervisors routinely docked workers’ pay and threatened to have them deported if they refused to work.
Two thousand and two hundred workers filed the lawsuit as a class action. The workers, known as "Pineros" or "Men of the Pine," perform the grueling and dangerous work of planting pine trees in the Southeast United States. Most of the workers came from Mexico or Central America.
The struggle of the Pineros is just one example of the rampant immigrant worker exploitation that exists under the federal guest worker H2B visa program. The program lacks many safeguards that even farm workers have already won, such as guaranteed minimum work and wage protection.
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