Meanwhile the Filipinos formed a parallel but independent Filipino Labor Union under the leadership of Pablo Manlapit. The Constitutional Convention of 1968 recommended and the voters approved a section which reads: An increase from 77 cents to $1.25 a day. Such men were almost always of a different nationality from those they supervised. Although there were no formal organized unions, that year 25 strikes were documented. Unemployment estimated at up to 25 million in the United States, brought with it wide-spread hunger and breadlines. These were craft unions in the main. No more laboring so others get rich. His name was Katsu Goto, and one night, after riding out to help some other imin with an English translation, he was assaulted, beaten, and lynched [read more]. Immediately the power structure of the islands swung into action again st the workers. They reminded the Hawaii Sugar Planters' Association that the established wage of $20 to $24 a month was not enough to pay for the barest necessities of life. The workers waited four months for a response to no avail. Hawaii too was affected and for a while union organization appeared to come to a standstill. June 14, 1900: The Abolition of Slavery in Hawaii. Of 4 million acres of land the makainana ended up with less than 30,000 acres. A song of the day captures the feelings of these first Hawaiian laborers: Nonoke au i ka maki ko, The newly elected legislators were mostly Democrats. The people picked up their few belongings and families by the hundreds, by the thousands, began the trek into Honolulu. The whales, like the native Hawaiians, were being reduced in population because of the hunters. Due to the collaborative work of the unions, in combination with other civil rights actions, today all ethnicities can enjoy middle-class mobility and reach for the American dream. Here is a look at the way the labor movement used to talk about the Organic Act. By the 1930s, Japanese immigrants, their children, and grandchildren had set down deep roots in Hawaii, and inhabited communities that were much older and more firmly established than those of their compatriots on the mainland. Wages were the main issue but the right to organize, shorter hours of work, freedom from discrimination, and protests against unfair discharge were matters that triggered the disputes. While the plantation owners reaped fabulous wealth from the $160 million annual sugar and pineapple crop, workers earned 24 cents an hour. . And remained a poor man, Their strategy was to flood the marketplace with immigrant laborers, thereby enabling the owners to lower wages, knowing workers had no other option but to accept the wages or be jobless and possibly disgrace their families. Later this group became the White Mechanics and Workmen and in 1903 it became the Central Labor Council affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. As a result, US laws prohibiting contracts of indentured servitude replaced the 1850 Masters and Servants Act which had been in effect under the Hawaiian Kingdom and Hawaii Republic. And remained a poor man, In 1836 the first 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg) of sugar and molasses was shipped to the United States. A shipload of black laborers left after one year of labor in Hawaii to return to the South. Ia hai ka waiwai e luhi ai, Plantation field labor averaged $15. For years, the public-sector unions sought to enact collective bargaining rights for its members. The Association initiated a polite request to the Planter's Association asking for a conference and appealing to the planters for "reason and justice." The loosely organized Vibora Luviminda withered away. The Japanese immigrants were no strangers to hard, farm labor. By terms of the award, joint hiring halls were set up, with a union designated dispatcher was in charge, ending forever the humiliating and corrupt "shape up" hiring that had plagued the industry. Just as they had slandered the Chinese and the Hawaiian before that they now turned their attention to the Japanese. by Andrew Walden (Originally published June 14, 2011). This vicious "red-baiting" was unrelenting and stirred public sentiment against the strikers, but the Union held firm, and the employers steadfastly rejected the principle of parity and the submission of the dispute to arbitration. The Associated Press flashed the story of what followed across the nation in the following words: They wanted freedom, and dignity which came with it. This gave a great impetus to an already growing union movement among Federal employees. Thats also where the earliest recorded labor strike occurred just six years later. Before the 19th century had ended there were more than 50 so-called labor disturbances recorded in the newspapers although obviously the total number was much greater. And the Territory became subject to the Chinese Exclusion Act, a racist American law which halted further importation of Chinese laborers. But there was no written contract signed. The Great Dock Strike of 1949 The Government force however decided as they had no quarrel with this gang to leave them unmolested, and so did not pass near them; consequently the Japanese have the idea that the white force were afraid of them. The Anti-Trespass Law, passed after the 1924 strike and another law provided that any police officer in any seaport or town could arrest, without warrant, any person when the officer has a reasonable suspicion that such person intends to commit an offense. This strike was led by Jack Edwardson, Port Agent of the Sailors Union of the Pacific. Hawaii became the new sugar production center for the US. Plantations and the military worked out an arrangement whereby the army could borrow workers. The struggle for justice in the workplace has been a consistent theme in our islands since the sugar plantation era began in the 1800s. They and their families, in the thousands, left Hawaii and went to the Mainland or returned to their homelands or, in some cases, remained in the islands but undertook new occupations. Sugar plantation owners used manipulative techniques to create a servile workforce, but their tactics eventually turned against them as workers ultimately overcame adversity by organizing together as a union. "7 For a hundred years, the "special interests" of the planters would control unhindered, the laws of Hawaii as a Kingdom, a Republic and Territory. . The owners divided the ethnic groups into different camps. After 1935 I labored on a sugar plantation, This system relied on the importation of slave labor from China, Japan, and the Philippines. As for the owner, the strike had cost them $2 million according to the estimate of strike leader Negoro. Though they were only asking for twenty-five cents a day, with no actual union organization the workers lost this strike just as so many others were destined to suffer in the years ahead. There were many barriers. On June 12, 1941, the first written contract on the waterfront was achieved by the ILWU, the future of labor organizing appeared bright until December and the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the territory into a state of martial law for the next four years. Their lyrics [click here] give us an idea of what their lives must have been like. Spying and infiltration of the strikers ranks was acknowledged by Jack Butler, executive head of the HSPA.27 However, things changed on June 14, 1900 when Hawaii was formally recognized as a U.S. territory. In 1911, the American writer, Ray Stannard Baker, said, "I have rarely visited any place where there was as much charity and as little democracy as in Hawaii. Honolulu Record, August 19, 1948, vol. "So it's the only (Hawaii) ethnic group really defined by generation." Waialeale back into service at the end of July, sympathetic unionists there were prepared to demonstrate their support for the striking workers. Within a year wages went up by 10 cents a day bringing pay rates to 70 cents a day. The article below is from the ILWU-controlled. As to Waikiki, I first learned about the rape of the land during a visit to the lookout point up on Tantalus. The Legislature convened in special session on August 6 to pass dock seizure laws and on August 10, the Governor seized Castle & Cooke Terminals and McCabe, Hamilton and Renny, the two largest companies, but the Union continued to picket and protested their contempt citations in court. They were the lowest paid workers of all the ethnicities working on the plantations. Lee, advised the planters in these words: MASTERS AND SERVANTS (Na Haku A Me Na Kauwa): The local press, especially the Honolulu Advertiser, vilified the Union and its leadership as communists controlled by the Soviet Union. This was commonplace on the plantations. Sugar and pineapple could dominate the economic, social and. Their business interests require cheap, not too intelligent, docile, unmarried men.". Women had it worse. After 8 months, the strike disintegrated, illustrating once again that racial unionism was doomed to failure. On August 1st, 1938 over two hundred men and women belonging to several different labor unions in Hilo attempted to peacefully demonstrate against the arrival of the SS Waialeale in Hilo. Military rule for labor meant: The 1946 Sugar Strike The Old Sugar Mill, established in 1835 by Ladd & Co., is the site of the first sugar plantation. There was a demand for fresh fruit, cattle, white potatoes and sugar. The racial differential in pay was gradually closed. Nothing from May 1, 2023 to May 31, 2023. Under the provisions of this law, enacted just a few weeks after the founding of the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, two different forms of labor contracts were legalized, apprenticeships and indentured service. In fact, most were 7Europeans who did not hesitate to apply the whips they carried constantly with them to enforce company discipline.16 Davies, and Hackfeld & Co., which later became AmFac. I decided to quit working for money, Those early plantation experiences set the stage for ongoing change and advancements in the labor movement that eventually led to the publics support for oppressed public employees, who at the time were the lowest paid in the nation and had the least favorable job security and benefits. Pineapple plantations began in the 1870s, with the first large-scale plantation established in 1885 on the island of Lanai. Two big maritime strikes on the Pacific coast in the '30's; that of 1934, a 90 day strike, and that of 1936, a 98 day strike tested the will of the government and the newly established National Labor Relations Board to back up these worker rights. Six years after this article appeared, the ILWU-controlled Hawaii Democratic Party would win the majority in the Hawaii State legislaturea majority which they have maintained almost uninterrupted to this day. The members were Japanese plantation workers. More than any other single event the 1946 sugar strike brought an end to Hawaii's paternalistic labor relations and ushered in a new era of participatory democracy both on the plantations and throughout Hawaii's political and social institutions. Many workers began to feel that their conditions were comparable to the conditions of slavery. The plantation features the world's largest maze, grown entirely out of Hawaiian plants. The plantation owners tried to keep labor from organizing by segregating workers into ethnic camps. "8 Having observed the operations of plantations throughout the south and in California, Clemens knew exactly how low the "coolie" wages were by comparison and expected the rest of the country to soon follow the example of the Hawaii planters. In desperation, the workers at Aiea Plantation voted to strike on May 8. For example, under the law, absenteeism or refusal to work allowed the contract laborer to be apprehended by legal authorities (police officers or agents of the Kingdom) and subsequently sentenced to work for the employer an extra amount of time over and above the absence. Imagine being constantly whipped by your boss for not following company rules. Union contracts protected workers from reprisals due to political activity. With the War over, the ILWU began a concerted campaign to win representation of sugar workers using the new labor laws. The Newspapers denounced the strikers as "agitators and thugs." It wasnt until the 1968 Constitutional Convention that convention delegates made a strong statement and pushed for public employees to have a right to engage in collective bargaining. This had no immediate effect on the workers pay, hours and conditions of employment, except in two respects. Discontent among the workers seethed but seldom surfaced. As early as 1857 there was a Hawaiian Mechanics Benefit Union which lasted only a few years. Hawaii later became. The dead included sixteen Filipinos and four policemen. No more laboring so others get rich, If such a worker then refused to serve, he could be jailed and sentenced to hard labor until he gave in. Pitting the ethnic groups against each other prevented the workforce from banding together to gain power and possibly start a revolt. All for nothing. Because a war was on, the plantation workers did not press their demands. Unemployed workers had to accept jobs as directed by the military. By the 1840s sugarcane plantations gained a foothold in Hawaiian agriculture. The Mahele was hailed as a benevolent redistribution of the wealth of the land, but in practice the common people were cheated. Strangers, and especially those suspected of being or known to be union men, were kept under close surveillance. This led to the formation of the Zokyu Kisei Kai (Higher Wage Association), the first organization which can rightfully be called a labor union on the plantations. Far better work day by day, Because of the need for cheap labor, the Kingdom of Hawaii adopted the Master and Servants Act of 1850 which essentially was just human slavery under a different name. Honolulu. The Hawaiian, Chinese and Portuguese were paid $1.50 a day which was more than double the earnings of the Japanese workers they replaced. I fell in debt to the plantation store, Arrests of strike leaders was used to destroy the workers solidarity. "26 They spent the next few years trying to get the U.S. Congress to relax the Chinese Exclusion Act so that they could bring in new Chinese. After trying federal mediation, the ILWU proposed submission of the issues to arbitration. The Hawaiian sugar industry expanded to meet these needs and so the supply of plantation laborers had to be increased as well. The chief demands were for $2 a day in wages and reduction of the workday to 8 hours. On August 5, 1909, after three months out, the strike was called off. Thus the iron grip of the industrial oligarchy, which had controlled Hawaiian politics for over a half century through the Republican Party, was broken. No more laboring so others get rich. Tens of thousands of plantation laborers were freed from contract slavery by the Organic Act. Suddenly, the Chinese, whom they had reviled several generations back, were considered a desirable element. Slave breeding was the attempt by a slave-owner to increase the reproduction of his slaves for profit. From the beginning the Union had agreed to work Army, Navy and relief ships at pre-strike wages. In 1924, the ten leading sugar companies listed on the Stock Exchange paid dividends averaging 17 per cent. Poho, Poho. UH Hawaiian Studies professors also wrote the initial versions of the Akaka Bill. This paper was a case study for Richard Eaton's World History: Slavery seminar at the University of Arizona. Under the Wagner Act the union could petition for investigation and certification as the sole and exclusive bargaining representative of the employees. The Japanese were getting $18 a month for 26 days of work while the Portuguese and Puerto Ricans received $22.50 for the same amount of work. From the beginning there was a deliberate policy of separation of the races, pitting one against the other as a goal to get more production out of them. History holds valuable lessons to address todays workplace challenges and constant changes. I fell in debt to the plantation store. Early struggles for wage parity were also aimed at attempts to separate neighbor island wage standards from those of Honolulu City & County. Hawaii Plantation Slavery. UH Hawaiian Studies professors also wrote the initial versions of the Akaka Bill. These short lyrics, popularly sung by the women, followed the rhythm of their work and were called Hole Hole Bushi after the Hawaiian expression hole hole which described the work of stripping dried leaves from the cane stalks, and the Japanese word fushi for tune or melody. The first notable instance of racial solidarity among the workers was in a 1916 dispute when longshoremen of all races joined in a strike for union recognition, a closed shop, and higher wages. The Higher Wage Association was wrecked. The employers used repression, armed forces, the National Guard, and strikebreakers who were paid a higher wage that the strikers demanded. In several places the Japanese went on strike to enforce their demand on the planters who were daily violating a US law in keeping them under servitude. We must protect these and all other hard-earned and hard-fought for rights. A haalele au i kaimi dala, From 1944 to 1946 membership rose from 900 to 28,000 as one by one plantation after plantation voted overwhelmingly for the union. The mantle of his leadership was taken over by Antonio Fagel who organized the Vibora Luviminda on the island of Maui. The leaders, in addition to Negoro were Yasutaro Soga, newspaper editor; Fred Makino, a druggist and Yokichi Tasaka a news reporter. These conditions made it impossible for these contract workers to escape from a life of eternal servitude. Part Chinese and Hawaiian himself, he welcomed everyone into the union as "brothers under the skin.". But these measures did not prevent discontent from spreading. WHALING: Employers felt they were giving their workers a good life by providing paying jobs. I labored on a sugar plantation, Fifty years ago today, when the Republic of Hawaii was annexed to the United States as a territory, the Hawaiian sugar planters never imagined that the "docile" and obedient Japanese laborers would revolt against them to secure their freedom. Women laborers to receive a minimum of 95 cents a day. Money to lose. These, too, were grown and supplied by the native population. It had no relation to the men on trial but it whipped up public feeling against them and against the strike. During the general election of November 5, 1968, the people of Hawaii voted to amend the States Constitution to grant public employees the right to engage in collective bargaining under Article XIII, Section 2. In the meantime the Labor Movement has continued to grow. In the aftermath 101 Filipinos were arrested. The Japanese, Koreans and Filipinos came after the Chinese. Many of the freed men, however, left the plantations forever. The problems of the immigrants were complicated by the fact that almost the entire recruitment of labor was of males only. Native Hawaiian laborers walked off the job in unity to show that they would not put up with intolerable and inhumane work conditions. For the harvest, workers walk through the pineapple rows, dressed in thick gloves and clothing to protect them from the spiky bromeliad leaves. Each planter had a private army of European American overseers to enforce company rules, and they imposed harsh fines, or even whippings, for such offenses as talking, smoking, or pausing to stretch in the fields. It looked like history was repeating itself. In 1973, Fred Makino, was recommended posthumously by the newswriters of Hawaii for the Hawaii Newspaper Hall of Fame. From 1913 to 1923 eleven leading sugar companies paid cash dividends of 172.45 percent and in addition most of them issued large stock dividends.30 (Coleman) Early reminders of American slavery to folks in the Islands were Anthony Allen and Betsey Stockton. The different groups shared their culture and traditions, and developed their own common hybrid language Hawaiian pidgin a combination of Hawaiian, English, Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese. Today, the Aloha Spirit continues to prosper and guide our people and embodied as a State law under HRS, 5-7.5. The four strike leaders were found guilty and sentenced to fines and 10 months imprisonment. Two years after the strike a Department of Immigration report said, "The sugar growers have not entirely recovered from the scare given them by the strike. and would like to bring in to the islands large numbers of Filipinos or other cheap labor to create a surplus, so that.. they would be able to procure the necessary help without being obliged to pay any increase in wages." Finding new found freedom, thousands of plantation workers walked off their jobs. It was from these events that the unions were recognized as a formidable force in leveling the playing field and as a means to address social, political and economic injustice. [see Pa'a Hui Unions] In 1973 the Federation included 43 local unions with a total membership in excess of 50,000. . Although Hawaii's plantation system provided a hard life for immigrant workers, at the same time the islands were the site of unprecedented cultural autonomy for Japanese immigrants. a month plus food and shelter. An advance of $6 was made in China to be refunded in small installments. Double-time for overtime, Sundays and holidays. which had been in effect under the Hawaiian Kingdom and Hawaii Republic. I fell in debt to the plantation store, In 1920, Japanese organizers joined with Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese laborers, and afterwards formed the Hawaii Laborers' Association, the islands' first multiethnic labor union, and a harbinger of interethnic solidarity to come. Sixty plantation owners, including those where no strike existed banded together in a united front against labor. The police, armed with clubs and guns came to the "rescue. To ensure the complete subjugation of Labor, the Territorial Legislature passed laws against "criminal syndicalism, anarchistic publications and picketing. . However, when workers requested a reasonable pay increase to 25 cents a day, the plantation owners refused to honor their fair request. This new era for labor in Hawai'i, it is said, arose at the water's edge and at the farthest reach from the power center of the Big 5 in Honolulu. Even the famous American novelist Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, while visiting the islands in 1866 was taken in by the planters' logic. Upon their arrival there, the Japanese at a signal gathered together, about two hundred of them and attacked the police.". Plantation-era Hawaii was a society unlike any that could be found in the United States, and the Japanese immigrant experience there was . Workers were forbidden to change jobs without permission from the employer. The Planters' journal said of them in 1888, "These people assume so readily the customs and habits of the country, that there does not exist the same prejudice against them that there is with the Chinese, while as laborers they seem to give as much satisfaction as any others. A noho hoi he pua mana no. Just go on being a poor man, There came a day in 1909 when the racist tactics of the plantation owners finally backfired on them. A "splinter fleet" of smaller companies who had made agreements with the Union were also able to load and unload, which as time passed became an effective way for the union to split the ranks of management. The decade after 1909 was a dark one for Labor. 76 were brought to trial and 60 were given four year jail sentences. The decades of struggle have proven to be fruitful. And chief among their grievances, was the inhuman treatment they received at the hands of the luna, the plantation overseers. Ariyoshi would in the early 1970s be instrumental in establishing the Ethnic Studies Department at UH Manoa. On June 10, the four leaders of the strike, Negoro, Makino, Soga and Tasaka were arrested and charged with conspiracy to obstruct the operation of the plantations. As a result, they were able to launch a strike in 1946 that lasted 79 days. Under this law, absenteeism or refusal to work could cause a contract laborer to be apprehended by the district magistrate or police officer and subsequently sentenced to work for the employer an extra amount of time after the contract expired, usually double the time of the absence. They seize on the smallest grievance, of a real or imaginary nature, to revolt and leave work"15 Labor was also influential in getting improved schools, colleges, public services and various health and welfare agencies. Meanwhile they used the press to plead their cause in the hope that public opinion would move the planters. Hawaiis sugar plantation workers toiled for little pay and zero benefits. It shifted much of the population from the countryside to the cities and reduced the self-sufficiency of the people. The owners brought in workers from other countries to further diversify the workforce. They confidently transplanted their traditions to their new home. More than 100,000 people lived and worked on the plantations equivalent to 20 percent of Hawaiis total population. In 1973 it remained the largest single trade union local with a membership of approximately 24,000. Meanwhile, the planters had to turn to new sources of labor. E noho au he pua mana no, The influx of Japanese workers, along with the Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, and African American laborers that the plantation owners recruited, permanently changed the face of Hawaii. This law provided public employees the right to elect an exclusive bargaining agent for representation and to negotiate an employment contract with the executive branch of government. . The Ethnic Studies version of history falsely claims "America was founded on slavery." In the years that followed the Labor Movement was able to win through legislative action, many benefits and protections for its membership and for working people generally: Pre-Paid Health Care, Temporary Disability Insurance, Prevailing Wage laws, improved minimum wage rates, consumer protection, and no-fault insurance to name only a few. Only one canner stays in Hawaii, the Maui Land and Pineapple Company, Island," as although the citizens have been mere plantation slaves. On the record, the strike is listed as a loss. The racist poison instigated by the employers infected the thinking and activities of the workers. These were not strikes in the traditional sense. Eventually this proved to be a fatal flaw. Yet, with the native Hawaiian population declining because of diseases brought by foreigners, sugar plantation owners needed to import people from other countries to work on their plantations. Native Hawaiians, who had been accustomed to working only for their chiefs and only on a temporary basis as a "labor tax" or Auhau Hana, naturally had difficulty in adjusting to the back-breaking work of clearing the land, digging irrigation ditches, planting, fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting the cane, for an alien planter and on a daily ten to twelve hour shift. The Kingdom set up a Bureau of Immigration to assist the planters as more and more Chinese were brought in, this time for 5 year contracts at $4. Just go on being a poor man, This system was similar to the plantation slavery system that existed in other parts of the world, such as the Caribbean.