On a Saturday afternoon, the parking lot of The Laundry Center in Medford sees a steady stream of white vans, or 鈥渃rummies,鈥� come and go. Inside those vehicles are forestry workers, like Jose Luis Arredondo. He鈥檚 using his precious spare time to wash clothes before setting out to another work site to plant trees, clear understory or light prescribed burns to reduce the risk from wildfires.
Arredondo is from Mexico and has an H-2B visa, commonly called a guest-worker visa. Those are used by employers to hire seasonal, non-agricultural labor. Forestry workers like him, from Latin America, are also commonly called pineros. They make up much of this kind of labor in the country.
Last year, the federal government approved nearly 13,000 H-2B visas for this work, according to data from the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and the American Immigration Council. Jackson County, where the contractor that hired Arredondo is based, accounted for over a quarter of those 鈥� by far the highest in the country. Since 2018, that number has grown by over 40%.
But Oregon鈥檚 forestry labor didn鈥檛 always look like this, according to Brinda Sarathy, a professor at University of Washington Bothell and author of the book , which looks at the evolution of the industry.
鈥淭here's this transition that you see in the early to mid 1980s of largely white contractors starting to hire more Latino workers,鈥� says Sarathy. 鈥淢ost of those workers would have been, at that time, probably undocumented.鈥�
She says that migrant labor transitioned from picking crops, like pears in the Rogue Valley, to forestry. They were mostly planting trees at first, competing with the worker cooperative Hoedads. Contractors hired migrants because they would accept lower wages, she says, and work for longer hours.
鈥淭hey're seen as compliant. Many of them don't complain about injuries on the job. There's no workers [compensation] worries, unfortunately,鈥� she says.
Like she mentions, most of the workers from Latin America were undocumented early on. But that changed in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which gave citizenship to many of the migrants living in the country illegally. As citizens, pineros could start their own contracting businesses, vying for federal contracts.
She says the first Latino contractors appeared around 1988. By 2005, they dominated much of the industry in Oregon.
According to federal databases, in the last seven years the government has certified H-2B visas for over 50 Jackson County- based forestry contractors (75 businesses were identified statewide). For approval, employers must show those jobs cannot be filled by U.S. citizens.
Nearly 80% of those contractors are classified as Hispanic-owned by the federal government. Rogue Valley businesses have brought in over $879 million dollars in federal contracts according to public data.
But labor advocates have criticized the industry, saying contractors can more easily exploit foreign workers.
Recently, a former pinero sued three Rogue Valley businesses for $42 million after an accident. The worker was using a chainsaw, without proper training according to the lawsuit, when a tree limb injured his spinal cord.
鈥淭his labor broker essentially failed the worker,鈥� says Mayra Ledesma, an attorney in that case. 鈥淯ltimately, I think the government definitely has a hand to play in that.鈥�
Ledesma says safety regulations can go unenforced and contractors can skimp on training and safety equipment. According to labor advocates, workers are often apprehensive about reporting their bosses for fear of retaliation.
According to the , forest and conservation workers have one of the highest rates of injuries.
Since 2020, the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division has inspected only four labor-intensive forestry contractors in the state. Three of those inspections occurred after a complaint. A spokesperson with the division estimates they have at some point over the years inspected 31 out of 75 contractors statewide.
鈥淥regon OSHA maintains the third-highest inspection presence in the United States,鈥� according to a statement. 鈥淥regon OSHA does not have unlimited resources to inspect every workplace, so we focus on high-hazard industries, including forestry.鈥�
Over 9% of Oregon forestry contractors that use foreign guest workers have had wage complaints filed against them in the last ten years according to public records from the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries.
鈥淚t's not just the H -2B program. It's a systemic, underclass industry that really came out of the boom-and-bust of logging,鈥� says Marko Bey, founder of the non-profit Lomakatsi Restoration Project which partners with both federal agencies and contractors for forest restoration.
鈥淪ervice contractors have always been a lowball, cutthroat-type industry, just because of the way it's structured,鈥� says Bey.
Federal contracts for forestry work are awarded based on 鈥渂est value鈥� determinations, meaning bids are judged on contractor鈥檚 experience and benefits to the local community rather than only cost. But in practice, according to Bey, contracts often still go the lowest bidder.
鈥淪ervice providers, generally, in what we would call the low-bid kind of universe, will often have to cut corners,鈥� says Bey. 鈥淪ometimes those corners unfortunately become the well-being and the safety of the workers on the ground.鈥�
Back in Medford, while Jose Luis Arredondo waits for his clothes to dry, he says he doesn't have any complaints at his job. Although, he says, the tiring work often done in extreme temperatures isn鈥檛 for everyone. But he likes it. And he says it helps him support his mother back in Mexico. In April, Arredondo will return home where he plans to renew his visa.
So far, President Trump鈥檚 administration hasn鈥檛 targeted the H-2B visa program. Last time he was in office, he actually of those visas available.
His businesses workers too.
This is part of a series on the workers performing labor-intensive forestry. That鈥檚 all the work in this country鈥檚 forests that isn鈥檛 logging 鈥� vital services like reforestation and fuel treatment. In our previous story, we looked at a large worker cooperative in Oregon that did much of the region鈥檚 tree planting 50 years ago.
