Worker versus Employer Perspectives on Safety in the Forestry Services Industry.

Forestry services work presents high risk for injury, illness, and fatality. How worker and employer views of workplace safety compare influences the strategies to address hazardous working conditions. Interviews with forestry services workers and employers revealed themes about occupational hazards and ways to prevent work-related injury. Workers identified hazards related to the social and natural environments, and injury prevention solutions focused on interventions beyond their control and based on employer responsibility. Employers characterized hazards within job task contexts and tied solutions to worker behaviors to improve job task performance. Discordance between worker and employer reports indicates inconsistent views about what safety measures should be provided and pursued to effectively reduce injury risk. Because many workers in the forest services industry are marginalized due to their immigrant documentation status and being racially/ethnically minoritized, power differentials between workers and employers can also influence how workplace safety and health measures are determined and implemented.

System Failure: Work Organization and Injury Outcomes among Latino Forest Workers.

OBJECTIVES: Forestry services is a hazardous industry with high job-related injury, illness, and fatality rates. The Northwest workforce is largely Spanish-speaking, Latino, and immigrant, working in poor conditions with insufficient attention paid to safety and health. Institutional racism fundamentally shapes the structural vulnerability of Latino immigrant workers. Given this context, we sought to understand how workplace organizational factors and safety climate affect job-related injuries in this industry. METHODS: We developed 23 case studies from personal interviews after selecting from an initial participant survey pool of 99 Latino forest workers in southern Oregon who had been injured at work in the previous 2 years. Workers were recruited through snowball sampling and door-to-door canvassing. Questions spanned work conditions, tasks, employer safety practices, injury experience, medical treatment, and workers' compensation benefits. RESULTS: Workers reported broken bones, chainsaw lacerations, back pain, heat and pesticide illnesses, and other occupational injuries. One-third of the cases fell into a Systems Functional category in which they reported their injuries to their supervisors and received medical treatment and workers' compensation benefits. The remaining two-thirds experienced System Failures with difficulties in receiving medical treatment and/or workers' compensation benefits, employer direction to not report, being fired, or seeking alternative home remedies. CONCLUSION: Workers employed by companies with more indicators of safety climate were more likely to obtain adequate treatment for their injuries and fully recover. Workers for whom interpretation at medical exams was provided by someone unaffiliated with their employers also reported better treatment and recovery outcomes.

Working in the Shadows: Safety and Health in Forestry Services in Southern Oregon.

We conducted a small participatory survey to document occupational injuries and illnesses, medical treatment, wage issues, and general working conditions among 150 forest workers in southern Oregon who are mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants from Latin America. We used snowball sampling in administering the survey. Survey results showed a high rate of job-related injury among the workers who responded to our survey. Results also suggested that many forestry services contractors licensed in Jackson and Josephine counties may not always follow labor laws. The vast majority of workers surveyed reported being fearful of retaliation for reporting injuries. There were no differences in reported working conditions and wage issues between workers with H-2B visas and other workers in the sample. This finding suggests that current US labor and health and safety laws are not effectively protecting Oregon's forest workers, owing to forest workers' structural vulnerability-their low positioning in social structures supported by immigration and economic status-compounded by fear of retaliation. Immigration policies and enforcement practices that contribute to creating a labor system with these inherent vulnerabilities and power imbalances need to be further examined and changed.

Evaluation of a pilot promotora program for Latino forest workers in southern Oregon.

BACKGROUND: Forest work, an occupation with some of the highest injury and illness rates, is conducted primarily by Latino immigrant workers. This study evaluates a pilot program where promotoras (lay community health educators) provided occupational health and safety trainings for Latino forest workers. METHODS: Evaluation methods included a focus group, post-tests, and qualitative feedback. RESULTS: Community capacity to address working conditions increased through (i) increased leadership and community access to information and resources; and (ii) increased worker awareness of workplace health and safety rights and resources. Fear of retaliation remains a barrier to workers taking action; nevertheless, the promotoras supported several workers in addressing-specific workplace issues. CONCLUSIONS: For working conditions to significantly improve, major structural influences need to be addressed. A long-term, organizationally supported promotora program can play a key role in linking and supporting change at the individual, interpersonal and community levels, contributing to and supporting structural change.