Pineros

The exploitation of Latino workers in many industries, fromagriculture and meat packing to textile manufacturing and janitorialservices, is well known. By contrast, pineros -- itinerant workers whoform the backbone of the forest management labour force on federal land-- toil largely in obscurity.

 

Drawing on government papers, media accounts, and interviews withfederal employees and Latino forest workers in Oregon’s RogueValley, Brinda Sarathy investigates how the federal government came tobe one of the single largest employers of Latino labour in the PacificNorthwest. She documents pinero wages, working conditions, and benefitsin comparison to those of white loggers and tree planters, exposingexploitation that, she argues, is the product of an ongoing history ofinstitutionalized racism, fragmented policy, and intra-ethnicexploitation in the West. To overcome this legacy, Sarathy offers anumber of proposals to improve the visibility and working conditions ofpineros and to provide them with a stronger voice in immigration andforestry policy-making.