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Unions are asking Māori forest owners and iwi to back an inquiry into the high rate of workplace deaths and injuries in the forestry industry.
Robert Reid from the First Union says there is the equivalent of the Pike River mining disaster with 29 young men, mainly Māori, dying on the job every four or five years.
He says while the industry drug tests its workers, it ignores the exhaustion caused by long hours of physically demanding work that leads to mistakes and accidents.
He says Māori forest owners support action, but they often have little to do with how their forests are harvested.
"Even though the forests may be owned by Māori, the influence that they might have – they probably need to reassert – to make sure that the forest management companies they hire do take safety seriously further down the track and we're not under pressure of needing to work long hours at too fast a speed," Mr Reid says.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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