Migrant workers claim company broke laws

BOISE – More than a dozen migrant workers who came north to work for an Idaho forestry company are at the center of a battle over labor standards and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

All they wanted was a decent paycheck and a safe working environment, says their attorney, Maria Andrade. Instead, she says, they found themselves being charged for everything from the tools they used to the tents where they spent freezing nights cut off from the rest of the world.

The 16 men – 15 recruited to work in Idaho and one to work in Texas – filed a complaint with the Mexican government earlier this week, asking officials to press the United States to provide better enforcement of its own labor laws as required by NAFTA. Mexico has not decided whether to pursue the case.

Most of the men were recruited from Mexico and Panama under a U.S. guest-worker visa program between 1999 and 2002 to plant trees for Orofino-based Universal Forestry. They contend they were paid as little as $2 an hour after deductions for tools and housing. The workers say they were promised $10.50, and minimum wage at the time was $5.15.

“I came here expecting to work hard and make money to support my family. What I didn’t expect was to risk my life, be cheated out of my earnings, and then learn that the legal-aid lawyers who U.S. citizens rely on in such cases couldn’t help me,” Manuel Camero-Torres said in a prepared statement.

Lisa Matute, the former owner of Universal Forestry, says the charges are bogus. Heber Matute, her ex-husband and the current owner, did not return repeated calls from the Associated Press.

“None of these employees are slaves, but if they’re not happy we’re supposed to provide their transportation home. But if they leave in the middle of the night, I don’t know how we’re supposed to do that,” said Lisa Matute, who left the company two years ago as part of her divorce.

Both sides agree that Universal Forestry recruited the men as legal guest workers under federal and NAFTA rules. They worked in the Clearwater National Forest, building trails, planting trees and clearing.

Matute – who left the company two years ago as part of her divorce and says she cannot speak to the company’s current practices – maintains they were not promised free housing and that Universal Forestry paid the men well. She said the company never violated labor laws.

Andrade and her clients see it differently.

Some of the men paid as much as $600 to even get the jobs, Andrade says – the money going to legitimate visa fees as well as illegal charges for transportation, housing and tools. The men say they were forced to sleep in tents or tiny houses, and were not provided potable water.

When some tried to get help from local legal aid services, they were turned away because federal law prohibits bars certain federally funded agencies from representing guest workers. Their search for assistance was also hindered by their limited English skills.

Eventually, their story reached Andrade, who found grants to help cover the costs of their case. They sued Universal Forestry in federal court in January 2003, but the company declared bankruptcy eight months later.

That left the men fighting for unpaid wages and damages in bankruptcy court, where they eventually won settlements of about $35,000 each, Andrade said.

Many of them did not receive the money until the past few weeks – years after they left Universal Forestry. Payments were delayed in part because they had returned to their home countries, Andrade said.

“This is the kind of thing that nobody believes happens in America anymore,” she said.

She and her clients hope their petition to the Mexican government will make officials in both countries – as well as potential guest workers and companies that use guest workers – more aware of worker rights and potential problems, Andrade said.

“Most of the families sent their wage earner, the father, the head of the household. They basically had no wages for this entire time,” she said.

Migrant-worker safety has long been an issue, said Albert Pacheco, executive director of the Idaho Migrant Council.

“I think it’s pretty common. They see flyers, ‘Earn some money, come to California,’ and they don’t have any money to start off with. Then they get charged for everything.

“So then by the time you expect to get paid you’re already in debt for all the things they charged you for,” Pacheco said. “Then there’s no formalized grievance process for the person who is injured, and they may not be able to get to a place where they can get some kind of resolution.”

Lisa Matute says the lawsuit and petition demonstrate guest-worker abuse of U.S. companies.

“I think there’s a great deal of misuse, with employees using the visa bridge to come to the U.S. The company has borne the responsibility of bringing them into the U.S. and then they’re gone,” Matute said.

“There’s a very fine line we walk. … We all call the same agencies to get the same guidelines that we follow.”