High on the volcanic shoulders of Northern California's Cascade Range, the air is thin enough to sting your lungs. Between the mid-October freeze and November's first heavy snow, chainsaws echo in short bursts, muffled by dense trees and resin-sweet air. In the morning half-light, a small crew labors rhythmically, harvesting wild red firs for sale in Christmas tree lots across the country.
Warehouse laborers from Asia say the world's second largest employer, Amazon, has failed to live up to its promises to compensate them for financial abuses tied to their work for the online retailer in Saudi Arabia. In 2023, Amazon promised to reimburse recruitment fees to its contract workers from Asia who had been forced to pay large sums to secure jobs at the company's warehouses in Saudi Arabia.