On June 19, 1997, Pacific Lumber and its parent corporation, Maxxam, were sued in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by Stan Chandler, a third generation PL employee who alleges that he was wrongfully fired for speaking out against the dangerous working conditions that have been enforced by PL since its takeover by the Maxxam Corporation. After learning the profession of tree-falling from his father, Chandler worked for PL for 13 years where he earned himself the reputation as the company's best, most experienced old-growth timber faller. According to the complaint, Chandler always received excellent employee evaluations along with numerous assurances by his supervisors and managers that his job at PL was secure. Not once did he receive any type of negative evaluation, warning notice, or any other written disapproval of his work.
Chandler's suit contends that prior to 1986, PL was a company well-known for its long-term commitment to its employees and their families. The company had traditionally gone to significant lengths to provide its workers with benefits which included a promise that they would have a job for life. Employees were hired, worked for life, and then their children followed them into the work force. Such was the case with Stan Chandler.
However, when PL was taken over by Maxxam in 1986, the new management implemented production procedures which severely jeopardized worker safety. The company cut back on the number of support personnel for the tree fallers, forcing Chandler and other fallers to work alone. The company refused to provide two-way radios for the fallers in case of emergency. Fallers were left alone for hours and oftentimes not accounted for at all before the supervisors went home for the day. Chandler protested such safety violations after being abandoned in the woods one day.
Employees were also directed to cut old-growth trees closer to the ground (instead of at breast height) in order to gain an additional few feet of lumber at the expense of worker safety. Chandler not only questioned the safety of PL's policies during employee meetings but raised his concerns directly to the management.
PL responded by systematically pressuring Chandler to ignore the safety issues and told him not to discuss them with other timber fallers. When Chandler persisted, PL unjustly accused him of reporting more timber than he had cut ("long-thumbing") and disseminated this false allegation throughout the worker community, embarrassing Chandler and his family. On September 13, 1996, Stan Chandler's position at PL was terminated.
Chandler's complaint also states that the Maxxam-operated PL engaged in unfair business practices by violating state and federal environmental laws, including cutting down virgin old-growth forest during clandestine operations not authorized by law. Chandler was required to re-ribbon timber harvest plan boundaries so that the company could take additional timber which was clearly off-limits and not to be cut under pertinent state and Federal regulatory laws. Furthermore, the company required Chandler and other employees to engage in activities (such as tree falling) in order to obstruct and prevent law enforcement agencies' discovery of these unauthorized timber falling operations. A videotape showing the illegal removal of old-growth trees was filed as an exhibit to the complaint.
Aside from seeking damages for Chandler's wrongful discharge, the suit also seeks an order from the court requiring PL and Maxxam to pay back to the public the value of the trees that have been illegally removed.
The Environmental Protection Information Center has called on state and federal agencies to immediately launch an independent investigation of these allegations, to halt timber harvest plan operations in sensitive residual ancient groves, and to halt salvage exemption operations in old-growth and residual stands. Agencies must investigate these potential violations of law before any long-term plans affecting the future of Headwaters Forest are adopted.
Please contact the following agency people and ask them to conduct an independent investigation of Pacific Lumber:
Ross Johnson
California Dept. of Forestry
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-653-4995, fax: 653-8957
ross_johnson@fire.ca.gov
Jacqueline Schafer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-653-7664, fax: 653-1856
John Garamendi
Deputy Sec. of Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429
202-208-6291, fax: 208-1873
Michael Spear
US Fish and Wildlife Service
911 NE 11th Avenue
Portland, OR 97232
503-231-6118, fax: 872-2716
mike_spear@mail.fws.gov
The information in this article is based on the complaint filed by Chandler's attorneys: Mark Harris at 707-822-9506, Bill Bertain at 707-443-5078, Dave Williams and Kirk Boyd at 510-841-0707 and Thomas Petersen at 916-629-2557. For more information on the independent investigation of the charges in the suit, contact EPIC at 707-923-2931.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited