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Forester spars with SPLC over worker threats

By Mike Linn
Montgomery Advertiser


November 18, 2005

A Montgomery lawyer is asking a federal judge to protect a group of Guatemalan tree planters, saying co-workers at an American forestry company threatened and bribed them to withdraw from a class-action lawsuit against the company.

The Guatemalans, many of whom work in Alabama and the South during the winter on temporary work visas, said in affidavits that coworkers with Express Forestry Inc., a tree-planting company based in Arkansas, had made threats recently in Guatemala that included bombing and killing of plaintiffs.

The lawsuit was one of three filed in April on behalf of thousands of Mexican and Guatemalan forestry workers, who lawyers say make less than minimum wage, don't receive overtime pay and work upward of 70 hours a week planting trees."From our perspective it's pretty serious," Mary Bauer, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said of the threats and bribes. "Obviously this is designed to create a campaign of intimidation, to make people afraid to seek justice and pursue their legal rights."

Betsy Dorminey, a lawyer for Express Forestry, said company officials have never made any threats or bribes to members of the lawsuit. She said one company worker was in Guatemala for two days to answer questions, but had no involvement with plaintiffs in the suit.

But the wife of one of the plaintiffs, Maria Jiménez-Hernandez de Recinos, signed an affidavit saying seven men who said they were from Express showed up at her house in September and threatened to kill her husband if he didn't withdraw from the lawsuit.What may be happening, Dorminey said, is that some temporary workers fear the lawsuit would dent future opportunities with the company, and they're taking matters into their own hands.

Part of the lawsuit seeks travel expenses to America from Guatemala, which she said isn't "explicitly" required for workers who come to America on H-2B work visas, but SPLC lawyers believe otherwise.

If Express is forced to pay that expense, she said, Guatemalan workers would be at an unfair advantage because Mexican workers could get here for less.

"They perceive that if this lawsuit is successful, or even confusing enough to muddy the waters, then these jobs that they've been doing over a period of years are going to dry up," she said.

She said workers are paid at least $8 an hour, but they aren't paid during the rides to and from the work site, which can take hours a day in some cases.

The SPLC, she said, is essentially trying to change labor law."They have filed suit against a number of these tree planting companies in an effort I believe to bring about a change to the laws that govern the expenses that an employer must pay to people who come to work in this country on certain visas," she said.

The SPLC has filed similar lawsuits against two other forestry companies: Eller & Sons Trees Inc. in Franklin, Ga., and Alpha Services LLC, an Idaho-based company.