Although the exploitation of Latino workers in many industries is well
known, pineros - Latino forest workers - toil largely in obscurity.
Brinda Sarathy investigates how the US federal government came to be one
of the country's largest employers of Latino labour, and documents
pinero wages and working conditions in comparison to those of white
forest labourers. Pinero exploitation, Sarathy argues, is the product of
an ongoing history of institutionalized racism in the West. Overcoming
this legacy depends on improving the visibility and working conditions
of pineros and providing them with a stronger voice in immigration and
forestry policy-making.