State to investigate firms’ use of workers

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BANGOR – The 15 foreign workers involved in the fatal accident in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway on Thursday were certified to work in Maine by Evergreen Forestry Services of Idaho.

They were actually clearing land owned by Pingree Associates of Bangor.

Seven Islands Land Co. manages the Pingree properties.

Two other companies, UAP Timberlands of Arkansas and Pinebelt Inc. of Old Town, were involved with the workers. The relationships between the four companies wasn’t clear, however.

Joey Van Dee of UAP Timberlands said his company had contracted with Evergreen Forestry Services and Seven Islands to supply the workers to help thin trees on Seven Islands’ properties.

Steve Schley, president of Pingree Associates, said late Thursday that Seven Islands’ agreement was with Pinebelt Inc. of Old Town.

The relationship between Pinebelt and UAP Timberlands wasn’t immediately known.

“Those two are probably related, but it’s not clear to me how,” Schley said. “We called them Thursday night to try to sort that out.”

Schley said it should be resolved Friday.

Only one of the 15 workers survived when a van they were in plunged off John’s Bridge and sank in 15 feet of water. The 14 deaths were the most in any workplace accident in Maine’s history.

The remoteness of the accident site hindered a determination of which state or federal labor agencies would handle an investigation into what exactly happened and whether there were any violations of labor laws.

By late Thursday night, one official from the Maine Department of Labor said answers to some of his questions about how the companies arranged to use the foreign workers would have to wait until today.

Vaughn LeBlanc, who conducts alien labor certification for the labor department’s Division of Migrant and Immigrant Services, said he wants more information about the contractual arrangements between the companies because under certification rules subcontracting is not allowed.

“You can’t bring in workers and subcontract them to someone,” LeBlanc said.

He said if there were any possible violations, he would notify the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Two federal labor agencies also will decide today which one will conduct an investigation. An official from the U.S. Department of Labor in Boston said compliance regulators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the federal Wage and Hour Division were at the accident scene but he could not reach them because of the location.

OSHA typically investigates “private accidents,” said John Chavez, a federal labor department spokesman, such as those that occur in “industrial or construction settings.” The wage and hour division investigates accidents that happen “on the road,” he said.

“We’re trying to sort this out,” Chavez said.

The 15 men from Guatemala and Honduras who were in the van were foreign workers and not migrants, LeBlanc said. Based on a preliminary investigation, the 15 men had visas to clear diseased and weak trees from forest properties, he said.

Evergreen Forestry Services of Sandpoint, Idaho, had received the required certification from Maine’s labor department to employ the 15 men and 327 other foreign workers in the state.

Overall, about 5,850 foreign workers have been certified to work in Maine, LeBlanc said.

UAP Timberland has an office in Old Town, where representatives couldn’t be reached Thursday.

Pingree Associates is one of the top forestry landowners in the Northeast, with most of its property holdings in northern Maine.

According to labor certification policies for foreign workers, only the certified company should employ and pay the workers, LeBlanc said. He said subcontracts between a certified company and another firm are not allowed, particularly if that other company pays the workers.

Evergreen Forestry Services, which has been certified in Maine “for several years,” was paying the workers, said Van Dee.

“We subcontracted with them,” UAP’s Van Dee said. “They paid the workers. Evergreen bills us and we pay Evergreen.”

LeBlanc said he wants clarification on whether this payment arrangement is permitted under certification standards. He said he will be contacting the federal wage and hour division for information on that this morning.

“I’ve dealt with [Evergreen] for years and I’ve never had any problems with them,” LeBlanc said. “They’re big, they’re one of the biggest contractors in the country.”

Evergreen has an employee in Maine, but he could not be reached Thursday. Telephone calls to Evergreen’s main office in Idaho were unsuccessful.

There was no Old Town telephone listing for Pinebelt Inc.

John Cashwell, president of Seven Islands, said Thursday night that the company already is cooperating with state and federal labor agencies. He said there was nothing unusual about the relationship among the companies.

“This is just a tragic incident,” Cashwell said. “There’s no problems related to it.”

Workplace accidents

Thursday’s accident reminded state officials of a similar accident June 26, 1998, in Township 12 Range 11 in Aroostook County. A van carrying Mexican brush cutters to work in the woods 45 miles west of Portage rolled over, killing two and injuring 10 others.

In March 2000, a federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by a brother of one of the brush cutters. The brother had sued Superior Forestry Inc., based in Arkansas, for negligence, claiming the van’s driver was speeding, that he did not have a valid Maine license, that the van had an inoperable cellular telephone thus delaying medical assistance, and that the number of passengers in the van was excessive and unsafe.

Superior Forestry claimed that under workers’ compensation laws, the negligence claim was invalid.

In 2000, 26 workers were killed on the job in Maine, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. Seventeen of the employees died in transportation-related incidents. The state’s labor department does not keep records on whether any of the fatalities or other workplace-related injuries involve migrant or foreign workers, one official said.

Gov. Angus King, who attended a state employee recognition luncheon Thursday in Bangor, said Maine has a “very good record” of safe employment for migrant and foreign workers.

Last fall, on a trade mission to Mexico, King signed an agreement with Mexico President Vicente Fox in which Maine promised “to protect and support migrant workers from accidents,” he said.

This year, however, fewer Mexicans are working in Maine, said Adam Fisher, spokesman for the state labor department, noting the reduction is not tied to the agreement. Most of the workers are from other Central American countries.

“The demographics have changed,” Fisher said. “It wasn’t that long ago that Native Americans and teenagers would be working the harvest.”

Why foreign workers

The state’s reliance on foreign and migrant workers is vital to Maine’s economy, said Robert Spear, commissioner of the state’s agriculture department. Without them, products such as blueberries, broccoli and apples would not be harvested, he said.

Spear said he believes foreign and migrant workers are used more than Mainers for economic reasons. Mainers may earn more working in the seasonal tourist industry than during harvest periods, which usually are shorter. Plus, he said, Maine’s unemployment rate, which is about 4 percent, is so low that anyone who is willing to work is working.

“We just couldn’t get the crops harvested in a timely way without them,” he said. “On smaller farms, they might employ three to 10 migrant workers. It’s on a smaller scale, but to get their work done, they need them.”

But working conditions, too, may keep Mainers away from harvest or logging jobs, LeBlanc said. Tree planters, he said, must carry 40-pound bags of seedlings on their backs, and stoop over to plant the seedlings. The prevailing wage for tree planters is $8.49 per hour, and the prevailing wage for tree thinners is $10.40 per hour.

Some Mainers do apply for the jobs, he said, but not enough to fill the demand.

“The jobs are advertised for Mainers to do and some apply,” LeBlanc said. “But not nearly as many as there are jobs. It’s a hard life. It’s not an easy job.”