PART II: The Plantation Period
1850 1900.
Masters and Servants
A major step was taken toward this goal in 1850. A provision for
importing foreign labor was included in a new apprenticeship bill, the
Masters and Servants Act. Based upon similar indentured labor laws,
including those of New York and Massachusetts the Hawaiian law
specifically provided for importing workers under a penal contract system.
Workers would be required to complete their contracts under the penalty of
indefinite jail terms until they complied. Contracts signed outside Hawaii
could be for as long as ten years; contracts signed in Hawaii could be no
more than five years. In practice, most contracts were for three,
regardless of whether for Hawaiian or foreign workers.
In theory, the law bound the employer as well as the worker to the
terms of the contract. Wages, board (usually), the type of work, the hours
of work, and the length of service were specified. In reality, the records
of the Hawaiian courts are filled with examples of the one sided justice
which prevailed under this contract labor law. Few employers were ever
held accountable. The main defense of the worker was to desert the
contract and risk imprisonment.
In the first years of the law, Hawaiians were the principal signers of
such contracts, covering a wide variety of occupations from seamstress,
housekeeper, plantation worker to inter island seaman. In towns, most
household servants were signed to such contracts.
Imported Labor
If plantations were to be developed on any scale, labor would have to
be found and brought to Hawaii. In the 1850s, China was the most common
source of laborers. Many countries imported thousands of Chinese to work
under conditions little better than slavery. The sugar plantations and
mines of Latin America were worked by such Chinese workers. The "coolie
trade" was notorious for its brutality and extreme hardships. In 1856
Hawaii's small plantations turned to this source to recruit workers. The
ambitions of the planters were larger than their plantations at this point
and only a small number of Chinese were brought in to work alongside the
indentured Hawaiian workers.
Of the many skills needed on the new plantations, carpentry was perhaps
the most urgent. Mills, flumes, workers' housing, and bridges, all needed
to constructed. Judging from the early plantation records, there were many
Chinese carpenters included among these early arrivals. Other immigrants
learned their craft on the job building the structures needed by the
rapidly expanding plantations.As their numbers grew, many of the Chinese
workers moved from the plantation to the urban areas of Hawaii to enter
other occupations. By 1880, the numbers of Chinese workers in Honolulu had
reached the point where some people began to see them as a threat to
Hawaiian and Caucasian craft workers. These "white mechanics", as they
were called, began to protest the competition from Chinese workers. Many
of the racial stereotypes used against the Hawaiians to justify importing
the Chinese workers, were now turned against the Chinese.8
The majority of Chinese leaving the plantations went into commercial
activities, such as hack driving, peddling, laundries, and restaurants. A
significant number went into the building trades. By 1880, Chinese
building trades workers made up the majority of that work force in
Honolulu.
It is difficult to know how many came via the plantation and how many
came directly from China to work as painters, wood carvers, cabinet
makers, and carpenters.
One of those who brought his skills directly to Honolulu was Tuck Leong
Cheong who opened a carpenter shop specializing in commercial buildings
and lacquer work.9 One young Chinese worker
learned his trade as a carpenter in this shop. Lee Chu set up his own
contracting business in 1891.
By 1896, Lee Chu was able to open a new, larger business, the Oahu
Lumber and Building Company.
The Transformation of the Craft: The U.B.C.J.
While these changes were occurring in Hawaii, more drastic and far
reaching changes were occurring in the trade on the mainland. Between 1880
and 1900, the carpenters' trade was radically altered. For centuries the
skilled woodworker built his wooden structure from start to finish. The
carpenter performed all of the tasks required to complete the building on
the site. The advent of power machinery in the 1880's changed all of this.
Off site mass production of many of the elements of the building, such as
doors, windows, trim, moulding and cabinets, began to erode the skill
level of the journeyman carpenter. Many of these tasks once performed by
the carpenter were now reduced to the assembly and installation of the off
site produced materials. Iron and steel structures and new masonry
techniques dominated commercial construction, sharply reducing the amount
of carpentry work available.
New materials and techniques began to erode the traditional job base of
the carpenter. Sheet rock, reinforced concrete, and scaffolding, to name a
few, fell outside the trade. The decade of the 1870s saw the appearance of
the large corporation, with enormous resources. Labor fought a desperate
battle in this decade, resisting the erosion of wages and working
conditions.10 The scale of construction
projects changed drastically.
Recognizing the threat posed by these circumstances, delegates from
fourteen carpenters' unions met in Chicago on August 8, 1881 to form the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. The driving force behind the
new organization was Peter J. McGuire. His message was simple: the unity
of the working class was essential if the workers of America were to
achieve a decent standard of living. With the new scale of building came
the sub contractor. His arrival multiplied the difficulties for the
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. The annual proceedings of the
organization in this period are largely given over to discussions of how
to deal with the myriad of sub contractors and where to focus the
attention of the union and how to deal with the new skills and new
products appearing in the construction industry.
Contractors were demanding that carpenters sign an agreement that
specified "there shall be no limitation as to the amounts of work a man
shall perform during the day."
There was to be no limitation on the use of materials, no union
stewards were permitted on the job site, and employers were free to hire
whomever they wished.11
As the city of Honolulu developed, many of these same problems appeared
in Hawaii. The majority of carpenters in Hawaii, trained either in Asian
methods of construction or on the plantation, were confronted equally with
the sweeping changes in the building trades. The allied trades the
plumber, the electrician, the cement worker, the metal worker, and,
increasingly, the installer of off site produced materials were now
important elements in commercial and home construction.
The period between the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and
the annexation of Hawaii to the United States in 1900 was a very confused
and troubled time. Perceiving correctly that the sugar industry had been
the inspiration behind the overthrow of the monarchy, the urban unions
began to attack the sugar industry and their representatives as the source
of the problems appearing in Hawai'i.
Racism
The steady flow of carpenters and building trades workers coming from
the plantations to Honolulu disturbed an already unstable labor market.
The business community, now in full control of the government, rapidly
increased the flow of workers from Japan and China. Urban workers,
observing the flow of new people into the plantations and the rapid
increase in the numbers of ex plantation workers with whom they had to
compete, began to attack the continued importation of workers. Newspapers
in Honolulu, opposed to annexation for political reasons, began to write
editorials attacking Asian workers. Exaggerated accounts of the supposed
differences between "American" workers and Asian workers were a constant
feature in the period between 1893 and 1900. Lurid descriptions of the
"Asiatic Hordes, the "Oriental Menace," were frequent in the Honolulu
press. Most of these accounts "explained" how the Asian worker could
survive on a fraction of the income of the "American" or "native" worker;
Asians needed "only a handful of rice".
Supposedly this explained the low wage structure and the reason why
"American" workers must oppose the further importation of Asians.
Borrowing and building on the strong anti Asian sentiments of the West
Coast, many people outside the construction industry joined in the attack.
This mainland prejudice became an argument in Hawaii for the need to
satisfy Congress and conform to the Congressional views on Asia, lest they
vote against annexation.
Citing American demands, politicians and organizations in Hawaii echoed
the mainland demand to deport Asians and replace them with "European"
workers, meaning largely Spanish or Portuguese. One newspaper, the
Hawaiian Independent, featured stories of building projects in Hawaii
which used Japanese or Chinese building trades workers, particularly if
the project was one owned by a sugar planter or pro annexation politician.
In reality the struggle in Hawai'i was for political control and
economic domination; the Asian worker was simply the excuse for that
struggle. Unfortunately, the racist arguments used did much to divide the
already weak urban work force. By disguising the political and economic
struggle in racist terms, the Hawaiian workers were drastically weakened
in their struggle to improve their wages, hours, and working conditions.
Annexation and the Union: 1900
When it came in 1900, annexation did not bring quite the results
envisioned by the planters. Their goal of protecting the sugar of Hawaii
by gaining permanent access to the American market was easily met. The
importation of American laws and customs proved much more troublesome. No
longer could the penal labor contract be used. The annexation resolution
expressly outlawed the labor contract. Workers now had rights they were
denied under the Kingdom and the Republic.
Annexation also focussed the attention of the mainland labor movement
on Hawaii. This was a new jurisdiction, one that called for organizing.
For some years, the maritime workers of Hawaii had been in touch with the
mainland labor movement. Hilo and Honolulu longshoremen were early
participants in the formation of the International Longshoremen's
Association. Hawaii had long been a target of opposition from the American
Federation of Labor (AFL) for the importation of Asian workers.
NOTES:
- The Friend (Honolulu), November 1, 1882 (weekly).
- Clarence E. Glick, Sojourners and Settlers: Chinese Migrants in
Hawaii (Honolulu: Hawaii Chinese History Center and The University
Press of Hawai'i, 198O) 86.
- Robert A. Christie, Empire in Wood: A History of the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (New York: 1956) 80;
Carl Reckman' "The Carpenter," in Andrew Zimbalist, ed., Case Studies
in the Labor Process (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979) 92 93.
- Reckman, "The Carpenter'" 91.
PART III: The Labor Movement
Carpenters Local Union No. 1
Bearing the stamp, "Carpenter's Local Union No. 1", the Honolulu
carpenters opened their day book on July 25, 1901, with ten men listed as
paying dues for June and July. Annexation was the stimulus. Now part of
the United States, Honolulu carpenters were anxious to move into the
mainstream. In that same year, the United States Commissioner of Labor
described the local labor scene:
In Honolulu skilled workmen, such as carpenters, plumbers,
and machinists are well organized and their various labor unions are
prosperous and influential. Because of the shortage of workers and the
high profits [available to the contractors] the labor unions have
usually been able to secure acquiescence on the part of the employers
with the few demands they made for either increased wages or for shorter
hours of labor without being compelled to resort to strikes.12
In its report for 1901, the U.S.
Labor Commission recorded 1,925 carpenters: 433 Hawaiians, 537 Caucasians,
334 Chinese, 619 Japanese, and two "others."13 There were seventeen carpentering
establishments, employing 414 carpenters. Of the total, only 633 were
classed as "native born". The remainder, 1,292, were born outside of
Hawaii and reflected the in migration of workers brought on by the
annexation boom. "Many building contractors are required by the rapid
growth of the city and its extensive and expensive improvements."14 In those industries employing carpenters in
1901, only two excluded Asians: Honolulu Iron Works employed fourteen
carpenters of whom seven were Hawaiian; and eight building contractors
employed sixty seven carpenters, of whom thirty were described as
Americans and fourteen as Hawaiian. Thus, despite the loud cries and
efforts of the press and the craft unions, employment of carpenters was
reasonably well spread among the ethnic groups. Oahu Railroad, for
example, employed seventeen Japanese among its carpenters. The thirty
eight plantations recorded a total of 517 Japanese carpenters out of a
total of 633. There were only forty three Chinese carpenters, followed by
the Portuguese with thirty eight.15 The
number of Chinese would diminish steadily as the Chinese now fell under
the U.S. exclusion statutes. It is clear that the plantations formed a
great reservoir of carpenters who would move into urban building
activities over the years.
The steady flow of workers leaving the plantations provided both an
opportunity and a problem for the building trades unions. Urban building
was heavily concentrated in the few urban areas of Hawaii, simplifying
labor organizing. The problem lay in the importation of the racist ideas
of the mainland unions. The American Federation of Labor had rigid ideas
about race. They segregated non Caucasians into separate locals and most
Internationals had a "white only" clause in their constitution. The multi
racial composition of Hawaii was not readily accepted by the mainland
organizations, making it difficult for the Hawaii unions, particularly the
carpenters, to extend their organization to include most of the working
tradesmen. The flow of carpenters into the urban areas meant that the
fledgling union would have to confront the issue of race soon if they were
to have a major influence on the wages, hours, and working conditions.
The momentary advantages gained by organized labor from the annexation
boom were soon dissipated. The boom began to taper off in 1901 and
collapsed in 1902. The sudden decline in building activities is seen in
the fact that the Building Trades Council, organized in 1900 had ceased to
exist in 1902.
In November 1901, shortly after the Carpenters Union was organized, the
sash and door industry of Honolulu, some thirteen firms, was struck for
the eight hour day. They employed a total of 172 carpenters. After a four
day strike, the firms conceded the eight hour day. What was remarkable
about the victory was that there was approximately 20% unemployment among
Hawaii's carpenters at that time.16
Local 1 of the Carpenters' Union, which had reached a total of twenty
dues paying members was down to eight carpenters paying dues in mid
1902.17 The matter was summed up by the
Commissioner of Labor writing on conditions in the new U.S. territory:
No attempt to organize labor into affiliation with those of
the States appears to have been made in Hawaii until about the time of
annexation. The journeymen plumbers are said to have been the first to
form a union, followed by the carpenters, painters, machinists, electric
fitters, and a number of other urban trades....For a time there was an
association of the different trades called the Building Trades Council,
which had technically ceased to exist in the autumn of 1901....The
membership of the unions has declined rapidly.18
Hawai'i Joins The International
In the fall of 1902, Hawai'i and Puerto Rico applied to the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners for charters. After considerable
debate, the convention admitted Hawai'i as Local 745 and granted her
charter on October 15th. Although Puerto Rico had organized five locals
prior to their application, they were turned down by the International.
The two new island possessions were regarded with a great deal of
suspicion by the leadership.
The issue was the same in both cases: large non Caucasian populations.
Hawaii being more distant and less well known and much the smaller of the
two applicants was apparently able to overcome the problem. The Convention
Report shows Hawaii with fourteen members in good standing. The Local's
day book recorded thirty seven members. Apparently the International
counted only those on the books prior to application and did not count the
twenty one initiated subsequently.
For many years, in fact, Hawaii would remain distant from the
International. It would not be until 1950 that Hawaii would send a
delegate to the biennial convention. Other than per capita payments and
occasional correspondence about pensions and compensation for injured
members, there was little contact.
The Panic of 1907
The collapse of the annexation boom was followed by the onset of a
serious depression on the mainland which culminated in the Panic of 1907.
The local's membership was slow to recover the numbers of the first years.
Climbing from twenty members in 1905, the union grew slowly until it had
reached seventy four members in 1913. Despite the prosperity induced by
World War I, the local did not benefit greatly from the military build up.
Membership fluctuated between twenty and thirty dues paying members.
Conditions were not much better for the other craft unions, with the
exception of the metal trades centered at Pearl Harbor. The A.F. of L.
locals managed to keep their charters and accomplished little more.
Local 745's record books show that the local shared its meeting places
with other unions. In 1910, the Boilermakers and the Moulders unions met
at the Carpenters' Hall. Later, in 1913, the Typographers, the Steel and
Iron Workers, the Plumbers, and the Machinists were all using the Hall on
a regular basis. Non trade union groups also rented the Hall. The
Industrial Workers of the World held meetings there in 1911. For three
years during that era, the Socialist Party of Hawaii used the Hall for
meetings and lectures.
Hawaii maintained contact with the mainland union world. Small
donations were sent in response to appeals from the mainland. In 1911 they
contributed $10 to the defense fund of the McNamara Brothers in the famous
LOS ANGELES TIMES bombing case. Garment workers in New York and coal
miners in Illinois also received small contributions for their strike
funds.
Racial Tensions
The worsening economic situation after 1905 produced increasing
conflict and tension in Hawaii. The rapid expansion of the sugar industry
and the consequently large numbers of Japanese workers being brought into
Hawaii aroused intense opposition in the Honolulu community. As the
numbers increased on the plantations, the flow of carpenters into the
local building industry quickened. The craft unions made much of the fact
that the number of haole (white) carpenters employed in Honolulu shops had
declined from fifty three in 1900 to only twenty seven in 1905. Many of
the members of Local 745 were working at less than the union rate. Not
more than a dozen members in that year were able to work at the union
rate.19
Reflecting the bias of the parent mainland organizations, the Hawaii
craft unions steadily refused to admit Japanese to their ranks. Matters
were not helped by the fact that the media and the sugar planters had
launched a vicious campaign of slander against the Japanese. Their
frequent cries about the imminence of a "Japanese take over" created an
impression of more serious racial strife than was actually the case.
The planters had a motive in their attacks on the Japanese. Finding the
Japanese too well organized for their liking, the planters had tried to
supplant the Japanese with Chinese "coolie labor". Perceiving that the
Japanese had the capability to organize and to demand better wages and
working conditions, they sought to create a surplus of plantation labor by
importing Chinese. Counting on their great political influence and
economic strength, they expected to be able to persuade Congress to permit
them to import Chinese workers after annexation. To this end, they joined
in the chorus of anti Japanese sentiments so frequently found in the
Honolulu newspapers, hoping to frighten Congress into bending the Chinese
Exclusion Law to avert the "Japanese take over."
The economic instability of the time made the workers vulnerable to the
racist argument of the politicians and the sugar planters. It was not
unusual to find statements such as the following in the daily press:
The Japanese are undoubtedly making some inroads into fields
of employment that have hitherto been reserved for white mechanics. They
monopolize all the work for their countrymen and are employed
exclusively by one or two white contractors for building
residences.20
The notion that
certain types of employment were reserved for Caucasians was fairly common
on the mainland. Most A.F. of L. unions had "Caucasian only" clauses in
their charters. The Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners was typical in
this respect. Each of the biennial conventions from 1902 to 1920 adopted
resolutions attacking Chinese, Japanese, and Korean labor. Each convention
endorsed resolutions calling for the expulsion of all Asian workers.
Hawaii was seen as a special problem. A resolution submitted in 1906 by
the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League was typical of these actions.
Whereas the systematic colonization of these oriental races
of our insular territory in the Pacific, and the threatened and partly
accomplished extension of that system to the Pacific Coast and other
western localities constitutes a standing danger, not only to the
domestic peace, but to the continuance of friendly relations between the
nations concerned....
The resolution asked that the Chinese
Exclusion Act be amended to include both Japanese and Koreans.21 The motion carried unanimously.
Very early in the history of the Hawai'i local, the problem of race was
forcibly brought to the attention of the local leadership by Samuel
Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor. Told that the
union in Hawaii had signed a petition urging Congress to permit the
importation of Chinese workers to Hawai'i, he demanded of the leadership
of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners that they reverse this
action. Frank Duffy, Secretary of the International wrote to Fred
Sackwitz, the local recording secretary, asking for an explanation.
Sackwitz replied that the local had indeed urged an amendment to the
Chinese Exclusion Act and had endorsed the importation of Chinese labor in
order to relieve the plantation labor situation at the request of the
community business leaders. He explained to Duffy that the local's
experience with Asian workers indicated that they made good union members
and their admission would strengthen the nation's labor movement.22
What the recording secretary did not explain in his letter to Duffy was
what the union hoped to gain from the effort to import Chinese workers the
inclusion of labor unions in the councils of government. Territorial
Governor George Carter had formed a commission to report on the problem of
Chinese labor. Three members of the newly organized Trades and Labor
Council of Honolulu were selected to serve. This selection was intended to
neutralize any opposition among organized labor to the importation of
Chinese workers. At that time the Council had seven affiliates with
approximately one hundred members.23 The
subsequent report of the committee was rejected by the Labor Council and
the effort collapsed.
The long continuing effort of the plantations to import Chinese labor
after annexation kept the controversy alive. More and more, Japanese
workers became the focal point of the effort. The attitude of the Japanese
government made it clearly impossible to import any more workers from
Japan. In addition, the Root Takahara agreement sharply limited further
Japanese immigration. In effect, after 1907, only brides, students, and
business men could receive a visa to come to the United States. The
planters had two worries. Between 1900 and 1905, there was a massive
exodus of Chinese workers from Hawai'i. Although the Japanese made up the
preponderance of the work force, they, too, were steadily leaving the
plantation to go to the mainland and into urban occupations. The planters
could easily imagine a time not too distant when they would be faced with
a labor shortage. Historically, the plantations had arranged to maintain a
surplus of workers as a means of controlling wages. Should a shortage
develop, the impact on wages would be disastrous, in their view. Most of
organized labor in Hawai'i did not share the enlightened view of the
Carpenters that their Asian fellow workers would make good union members.
The bias against Asians that was so pronounced on the mainland continued
to prevail against the planters' efforts to maintain their labor surplus.
Despite these attitudes and the refusal to admit Japanese to
membership, the craft unions nonetheless had a sense of labor solidarity
that enabled them to identify with the struggle of the Japanese plantation
workers to improve their miserable condition. In the bitter strike of 1909
by the Japanese plantation workers, the U.S. Labor Commissioner reported
that :
The white trade unions in Honolulu seemed rather to
sympathize with the Japanese in the purposes of their strike and to
consider their demands of equal pay for equal work a just one, but there
is no relaxation of the fixed disapproval with which white workers in
general in Hawaii regard all oriental labor.24
Tradition has it that the craft
unions in Hawai'i were exclusively haole and strongly opposed to
any Asian or other race joining the union. The membership rolls reveal the
facts. The first day book of the union listed primarily haole names, with
a few Hawaiian names. The first recording secretary was apparently a
Hawaiian by the name of S. K. Nawaa, who served in that position for
several years. Another Hawaiian name appearing for over ten years was
James Hapenuia, who sometimes appeared as "Happynewyear." By mid 1903,
Portuguese names began to appear: Machado, Perreira, Souza, Freitas, and
Carvalho.
The day books for the next few years show a repeating pattern: a steady
influx of Hawaiian and Portuguese names in the membership. There is also a
steady attrition of these names for non payment of dues. This reflects the
fact that there were few union mills or establishments in Honolulu. There
is a steady shifting of names on the rolls as new members are initiated
and then dropped for non payment of dues, sometimes within two months.
The shifting of membership continued through 1919. In November, 1919, a
significant event occurred. The list of new initiates included the name
Yuen Kon Lai, the first clearly identifiable Chinese name. It is very
likely that some of the earlier members were part Chinese, part Hawaiian.
Names such as Eddie Sui indicate this probability. In February, 1920,
using names as the sole criterion, there appears to have been thirteen
Chinese, fifteen Hawaiians, eleven Portuguese, and one Filipino among the
200 plus members listed that month. In March, when twenty five new members
were inducted, Koichi Iwamoto joined, along with eight Hawaiians, six
Portuguese, and one Chinese. Although Chinese names continued to appear,
the next Japanese name was not recorded until 1927 when Toshi Tasaki was
enrolled as a member. By the early 1930's, Japanese carpenters began to
join the local in significant numbers.
NOTES:
- U.S. Bureau of Labor, Report of the Commissioner of Labor on
Hawaii: 1901 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 19O2) 21.
- Ibid., 85.
- Ibid., 15.
- Ibid., 138; The Independent (Honolulu), April 6, 1897, June
8, 1897 (daily).
- U.S. Bureau of Labor, Report, 19Ol, 89, 113.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor, Report of the Commissioner of Labor on
Hawaii: 1902 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1903) 112; Hawaii Carpenters
Union, Day Book #1, 1902, passim.
- Bureau of Labor, Report, 1902, 112.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor, Third Report of the Commissioner of Labor
on Hawaii: 19O5 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1906) 29; Hawaii Carpenters
Union, Day Book # , reports an average of twenty paying monthly dues in
1905. The Trades and Labor Council of Honolulu was made of six unions in
1905: blacksmiths, boilermakers, carpenters, hackmen, plumbers, and
sailors. The carpenters, with forty two members, was the largest of the
group.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor, Report, l902, 1O2.
- United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, Proceedings of the
14th Annual Convention (Indianapolis, 1906) 65, 305 307
- Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement 3:275.
- John Reinecke, Feigned Necessity (San Francisco: Chinese
Materials Center, Inc., 1979) 65.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor, Report of the Commissioner of Labor on
Hawaii: 191O (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1911) 98.
PART V: World War II and the Postwar Period
The Union and the War
By the end of the 1930s, preparations for American participation in the
war in Europe brought dramatic changes in the Hawaiian labor movement. The
urgency of the military build up between 1939 and 1942 brought many
mainland contractors to Hawaii. Many of these brought key workers and
supervisory personnel. The result was a rapid growth for all of the
construction unions as mainland union members deposited their cards with
the Hawai'i locals. Despite the drain of the military draft, the Hawaii
locals experienced a tremendous growth.
By 1942, there were approximately 1,300 members in Local 745. Many of
these members were working on war installations in various Pacific
locations. They would deposit their cards with the Hawai'i local and then
go off to Palmyra, Johnston Island, or other Pacific bases. Many never
appeared again on the Local's records. Some apparently went into military
service. This wartime turnover was a common problem for all unions during
the war.
The day books of the local give eloquent testimony of the difficulty of
collecting dues during this period with the old system of collection. The
automatic dues check off, the union security clause, now so familiar to
union members, only began in 1942 when the United States government agreed
to permit the deduction of dues from the paycheck in exchange for a no
strike pledge from the unions for the duration of the war. Hawaii, having
no union contracts at this time, could not use this method. Members still
met monthly to discuss issues and to collect the current dues. A monthly
stamp was put in the membership book and a button issued, to be worn on
the hat at the job site to show current membership. The day books of the
Local reveal the hard time many had in paying their monthly dues, often
because the member was working elsewhere in the Pacific. Frequently a name
would appear with the notation "paid up arrears". Keeping the card current
was important. Not only was it a matter of pride in belonging, but there
were accident, death benefits, and pensions, through the national for
members in good standing.
Although the local had frequently paid accident benefits to its
members, they were not reported as collecting death benefits from the
International until 1920. Benefits were paid thereafter in almost every
year in amounts of $250 to $300, reflecting the relatively small number of
members.
In Hawai'i, the war years were to bring into the union many of the
Japanese carpenters who had long dominated the craft in numbers. The long
campaign to exclude Asian workers from the American trade unions came to
an end, paradoxically, with the war against Japan. The war experience not
only validated the citizenship of the Japanese American, it also brought
them into the modern labor movement. The building trade unions of Hawaii
helped make the Japanese American craftsman a dominant force in the
Hawaiian labor movement. Coupled with the militant campaign of the
I.L.W.U. to end racial segregation in the plantation labor force, this
change in the craft unions ended the discrimination against the worker of
Asian descent.
The wartime boom in membership quickly collapsed in 1945. The day books
of Local 745 are filled with page after page of members dropped for non
payment of dues, reflecting the dispersal of those workers who came to
Hawaii to meet the wartime demands. It is difficult to tell from the
records whether these members cleared up their status on return to the
mainland or simply dropped out of the craft. Most unions throughout the
country experienced similar problems.
Demobilization at the end of the war brought other new problems for
Local 745. Construction projects were no longer on a cost plus, rush
basis. Wartime gains in wages and working conditions began to erode
rapidly. In 1940, a carpenter in Hawaii was lucky to earn ninety five
cents an hour. Actually, this was the mid point in the wage scale. Half of
the construction companies paid less, half paid more. The higher wage rate
represents primarily the scale for the large commercial builders firms
such as E. E. Black, Hawaiian Dredging, and Pacific Construction. Under
wartime conditions, the wage rate slowly crept to $1.35 an hour by 1945.
Although this seems to be a very low wage, one old time member recalled
that when Local 745 wages reached $1.25 during the early war years, many
members stopped coming to union meetings. They concluded that wages could
go no higher and, therefore, there was no longer any point to union
meetings.30
We often hear about the enormous gains made by workers during World War
II and the great increases won by the unions during the stress of war. We
seldom hear about the sharp increases in the cost of living which
accompanied these wage increases. The cost of living index in Honolulu had
reached 134.9 in 1945 (1940 as 100). The arithmetic behind these numbers
shows that a carpenter in 1945 was earning, effectively, only seven cents
an hour more than he had in 1940. When reduced to what the money would
purchase for the worker and his family, the five year gain in earning
capacity appears to have been very small. The further bad news was that
inflation was relatively mild during the war years. The income withholding
tax was introduced in 1942 as a "temporary wartime measure." Tax rates
were increased and made to apply to most wage earners. The disposable
income of the construction worker was sharply reduced. When price controls
were removed in 1946, prices shot up sharply. By 1948, the consumer price
index in Honolulu had reached 170.O. The effective purchasing power of the
carpenter had been reduced to $1.22 per hour.
These numbers leave out the great gains in productivity made in the
construction industry through the use of new tools and new materials.
Wartime technology began to be applied to the construction industry.
Hydraulic equipment became commonplace on the job site, cutting the labor
input sharply. Off site cement mixing permitted much more rapid
construction. These technical changes resulted in greatly diminished work
opportunities for carpenters. The wage figures should, to be fair, reflect
at least a portion of this productivity gain. If one assumes that the net
gain in productivity from both new techniques and new materials was
approximately three percent a year in this period, then the wage of the
carpenter would have been $2.01 per hour. Adjusting that figure for
inflation, the carpenter should have been earning $2.40 per hour. Rather
than a good wage increase, the worker was actually losing more than $1.05
per hour.
All of this is clear to the economist. It is much clearer to the
carpenter and his family. The wage loss showed up every day with the
landlord, at the grocery store, the clothing store, with medical bills and
the automobile. Those new tools which sharply increased productivity also
cost the worker a great deal of lost income. They also sharpened the
awareness of the need for a strong labor movement.
The ILWU
A new factor which changed the outlook for labor unions in Hawaii was
the success of the ILWU in organizing the powerhouse sugar and pineapple
companies. For the first time in Hawaii's history, workers had challenged
the enormous wealth and power of the Big Five and succeeded in a sweeping,
lightning like victory. Between 1944 and 1946, all but one of the Hawaiian
sugar companies had been organized and industry wide bargaining with
uniform job classifications had been established. The ILWU put an end to
the age old practice of controlling the worker through such items as
housing, medical benefits, and unilateral control over the assignment of
work. By 1945 and the second contract, the ILWU had established modern
collective bargaining practices in Hawai'i.
This success was a major stimulus to the demands of the urban craft
unions. It was no longer unthinkable to demand parity with the mainland,
to demand industry wide bargaining and uniform job classification and pay
scales. Fringe benefits were to be negotiated by collective bargaining
instead of being dispensed as charity by management.
It is important to note that the employers had clearly anticipated the
impact of the war on union organizing in Hawai'i. In 1943, the Hawaii
Employers Council was created to handle the labor negotiations of the
member firms. A top notch negotiator from the West Coast was brought in at
a salary of $40,000 per year. Just for comparison, the mid point of the
carpenters' pay scale in 1943 was $1.32 and rigidly controlled by the
military government in Hawai'i and by the War Labor Board guidelines in
Washington.
After the war, Hawai'i's unions were confronted with a new situation.
Any gains would have to be won, not against single employers, but against
a well organized Employers Council. The struggle for better pay and
working conditions was to prove a long and difficult one.
The success of the ILWU was marred by the most intense red baiting
campaign ever seen in the United States. Government and management teamed
up in an effort to eliminate the ILWU and to smash their organization,
both in Hawai'i and on the mainland. The issue of labor unity was (and is)
a difficult one. There are genuine differences in the goals and problems
of each union, despite the brotherhood of the working class. Leaders and
members occasionally fail to see the problems in clear perspective. It has
frequently been the case for American labor that they have been confused
about who the enemy was at any particular time.
The National Construction Unions and the NLRB
At the end of the war, the construction unions began a national drive
to consolidate their gains and to organize new territory. From the passage
of the Wagner Act in 1935 until 1947, many unions conducted a largely
successful organizing campaign. For the mainland construction unions, the
NLRB's non interference policy resulted in enormous gains. They were able
to bring into membership thousands of construction workers. The practice
of negotiating area wide agreements with construction firms without
reference to any particular job site recognized the fact that large scale
construction now represented the majority of building activities. By 1945,
the carpenter was forced to share many of his traditional skills with new
crafts and to utilize new materials. Some sixty five percent of a typical
house was constructed by specialty trades other than carpentry. As one
carpenter put it, the carpenter was more likely to be building forms down
in an excavation than to be constructing a building.31
The passage in 1947 of the Taft Hartley amendments to the Wagner Act
drastically changed the conditions of organizing for construction unions.
The NLRB began to interfere more directly in construction activities.
Close behind N.L.R.B. intrusion came the federal courts. Despite a
tradition of quite different union representation in the construction
industry, the effect of Taft Hartley was to impose on the construction
unions a pattern more suited to mass production industries. The federal
courts failed to recognize the exceptional conditions in construction,
such as the relatively short duration of a building project as compared to
the relative permanency of industrial production.
In an attempt to recognize the unique character of construction, the
NLRB tried to fashion a pattern of representation elections that would
meet the special needs of both the industry and labor. Based upon the
notion of a "pool of labor" in each area, the Board held simultaneous
craft elections for each so called pool of labor.32 Contracts were then negotiated with groups of
employers in those areas. Given the large number of such areas and the
number of local unions, it seemed a reasonable idea. The plan proved to be
unworkable when the Board attempted to narrow the definition of the area
pool of labor.
For Hawai'i, the matter was important. Determined to match the national
organizing drive, the construction unions attempted to organize along the
lines indicated by the area pool notion. One significant difference in
Hawai'i was to prove a handicap. There were only a handful of "large"
companies compared to the mainland. In the first election scheduled in
1948 on the mainland, for example, there were over 100 employers and five
unions. It proved to be impossible to coordinate the demands of so many
groups. The small number of employers in Hawai'i, the constricted area,
and the fact that there was only one craft union of each type, seemed to
make the plan ideal for Hawai'i. The financial power of the handful of
large construction firms in Hawai'i as compared to the weakness of the
unions was a serious obstacle to any labor organizing. The pool of
unorganized construction workers was still too large for such "consent"
elections. Another problem was to emerge in Hawai'i. That problem was
local autonomy versus national agreements reached on the mainland.
Action on the urban labor scene was stimulated by the 1949 longshore
strike. Spurred in part by the success of the ILWU in meeting the
ferocious challenges of management, the American Federation of Labor
unions were determined to move ahead and to win similar gains. The
expulsion of the ILWU by the national CIO had almost eliminated the CIO
organization from the Hawaiian scene. Instead of a unified labor movement,
the craft unions continued to regard the ILWU as a rival to be defeated
and replaced where possible. An important source of strength was thereby
lost.
The Mid Pac Agreement: First Modern Contract
Although Local 745 had been active in Hawaii since its chartering in
October of 1902, its coming of age as a modern labor union didn't happen
until 1953. To a large degree this new era for the local can be credited
to Stanley "Maui" Yanagi. Nick-named "Maui" in reference to the island of
his birth, Stanley Yanagi came to Honolulu in 1938 when he was 29 and
joined the Carpenters' union. Boyhood friends remember him as quiet but
tough and recalled how he would not hesitate to fight neighborhood bullies
twice his size, earning a reputation as "the protector."33
 Stanley "Maui" Yanagi, Local 745 Financial
Secretary and Business
Representative,1953-1977 |
In 1953 the local was small and in danger of being over-powered by a
new breed of large project contractors who were themselves beginning to
organize into a general association.
The first important gain for the local in this period was an agreement
reached with the Contractors Mid Pac, an organization representing
contractors doing work for the naval and marine bases. Signed on January
30, 1953, the agreement was a step toward the goals of the Local. Although
weak on some important issues, the contract negotiated by Stanley Yanagi
was a base from which later gains would be made. The contract offered only
minimal protection and benefits. Steward access to the job required not
only the permission of the Project manager, but compliance with the
requirements of the Commanding Officer of the base. The contract did,
however, raise the carpenters hourly wage from $1.75 to $2.00 and outline
a grievance procedure and establish a Board of Arbitration. Another
significant first step was the granting of a dues check off system, and
the union was granted the right to be notified of job vacancies and had
forty eight hours to refer a union member for the job, but with no
guarantee of being hired.
The first recorded strike of the local was to come just six months
later as the union tried to extend the application of the Mid-Pac contract
to a Navy housing project at Aliamanu Homes and a 281 lot program at Niu
Subdivision being built by Western Builders.34 Eighty carpenters were out for six days before
the contractor agreed to quit stalling and sign the contract they had
already agreed to the week before. And two days later a D. R. McKay
housing project on Bishop Estate land in Kailua was shut down when workmen
refused to cross the Carpenters' picket line. The union had just won
election as the bargaining agent on June 6th, but the company was
resisting the standard union shop clause.35
Both of these early strikes were won by the union and established Stanley
Yanagi's reputation as a respected union leader. At the same time they
began to lay the foundation for the union's goal of negotiating its first
multi-employer master agreement.
The Effect of the Korean War
The end of the Korean War in 1953 brought with it high unemployment in
Hawai'i. The collapse of construction reduced the ranks of Local 745; dues
paying membership dropped below 1,000. At times it was difficult to pay
the office staff salaries and per capita tax. Larry Miyata, the Local's
first Business Represenative and Financial Secretary from 1948 to 1953,
frequently went without pay.36 The
situation was summed up by a veteran carpenter: "We just didn't have the
power. The contractors were in the driver's seat. If they knew you were a
union member, you didn't get a job. They could push us around without any
strain."37
The difficulties facing the union were illustrated by a series of
contract negotiations during 1953 1954. The mainland strategy of reaching
agreements with the contractors without reference to a particular job site
proved to be difficult to negotiate in Hawai'i. The General Contractors
Association was determined to prevent any general master agreement.
Hampered by federal court rulings and NLRB regulations, the Local resorted
to the tactic of "informational picketing" to bring pressure on the
related building trades to stop work at a job site. Taft Hartley had put a
stop to secondary boycotts. The General Contractors Association was alert
to this tactic and mobilized to defeat it.
John O'Donnell, the representative sent by the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners International to work on master agreements for
Hawai'i, had his first partial victory in July 1954. The Building and
Construction Trades Council demanded master agreements to cover three
major construction projects: the Princess Kaiulani Hotel, the new
Woolworth store on Fort Street, and the University of Hawaii Sinclair
Library. Picket lines were authorized by the Council on June 28, 1954, at
the Princess Kaiulani, a Pacific Construction Company project. With the
aid of police, some workers for Pacific Construction crossed the picket
line. Those of the subcontractors did not.
The press treated the Princess Kaiulani picketing as an attempt to
bring "Dave Beck style" organizing to Hawai'i. The picketing was
interpreted as an effort to intimidate the employers into negotiating a
"top down" or "sweetheart" contract. Since Art Rutledge was president of
the Building and Construction Trades Council, this also seemed to the
press an attempt to cripple the fledgling tourist industry.
Pacific Construction replied to the pickets by demanding an election
among the Local 745 carpenters to determine whether or not they wished to
be represented. As the newspaper put it:
"Chiefly at issue are the union shop, which has been kept
out of most Hawaii labor contracts, and the technique of negotiating
from the top down instead of through the rank and file."38
The newspaper failed to explain
what was wrong with picketing, and particularly, what was wrong with
workers honoring the picket line. After many days of maneuvering, the
Local reached an agreement with the General Contractors Association to
withdraw the pickets in exchange for bargaining on the "idea of industry
wide elections" with the 225 members of the Association.39 UBCJ organizer, John O'Donnell, had won a
partial victory. Only the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
(IBEW) had previously won a master agreement type contract --in August
1948, ten firms had signed a master agreement with the IBEW. The
carpenters would have to wait until 1960 before signing their first
effective industry wide agreement. In 1954, Local 745 challenged the giant
Hawaiian Dredging Company and lost. The union had again taken the approach
of demanding a master agreement to cover all of the company's
projects.40 For the union, the central
issue was the demand for a union shop. The General Contractors Association
mobilized their members to oppose this demand for a master agreement. They
insisted on elections covering each job site or project, as allowed by the
National Labor Relations Board. This tactic was clearly designed to
exhaust the union's slender resources in endless representation elections.
The Central Labor Council
In 1953, the unions organized themselves into a new Central Labor
Council to bring some sense of unity to the thirty eight AF of L
unions.41 Local 745 was seen as one of the
more important and "growing unions" in this new drive. A newly formed
"unity council" of some fifteen American Federation of Labor unions, the
Building and Construction Trades Council, felt confident that they could
pressure the large contractors into granting a master agreement with a
union shop. Under the leadership of Rutledge's Unity House, the aim was to
unite the related unions in the drive against the large contractors.
O'Donnell was reported to be willing to drop all demands for a union
shop in exchange for a master agreement.42
He offered a five year agreement "with no change in the wage structure set
up by the General Contractors Association."43 At one point, the union offered to drop the
demand for an association agreement and instead offered company by company
elections; at least O'Donnell was reported to have made such an
offer.44
The subsequent defeat of the Unity House Building and Construction
Trades Council effort was due, in part, to the condition of the Hawaiian
economy in 1954, and, in part, to diverse interests within the Council
itself. By September, 1954, there were over 7,000 unemployed workers on
Oahu and work in construction was slow. Despite the appearance of strength
in the Unity House organization, the diverse interests and personality
clashes weakened their efforts. Sueo Kawakami explained the problem:
We had a Central Labor Council and a Building Trades
Council, but I think we had too many personalities involved there and
everybody was figuring his own kuleana. It was what you might call
growing pains. ....Many of us just didn't know how to go about
[organizing].45
The union lost
the representation election at Hawaiian Dredging. The loss encouraged the
employers' strategy of demanding job by job bargaining. To further
complicate the union's problems, the General Contractors Association began
to utilize the services of the Hawaii Employers Council (H.E.C.) in their
bargaining.46 The additional expertise thus
brought to bear was an additional barrier to a decent contract.
Although the issue was colored by the usual charges and counter
charges, what was at stake in these negotiations was the recognition by
the union of the fundamental changes which had taken place in the
construction industry. Large, commercial projects were no longer the work
of one company and a few crafts. Now the general contractor was more of a
manager of construction, employing many specialty contractors. Each
subcontractor was forced to work against a deadline of time and costs,
shaving corners where possible, pushing to the utmost. The difficulty of
dealing with the subcontractors was a new problem for the union. The
change brought about by Taft Hartley had arrived in Hawai'i.
Conditions were complicated by Taft Hartley rulings which hampered
union efforts. Court decisions and the NLRB had created a situation which
divorced the main contractor from the working conditions of the
subcontractor. The subcontractors were ruled to be separate entities, not
bound by the agreements of the general contractor with the union.
Picketing and job action could only be used against the particular
subcontractor with whom the dispute was occurring. Pickets were enjoined
from shutting down the job site; "common situs" picketing was forbidden as
a secondary boycott.
Hopes were raised in 1955, when the long lasting split in the ranks of
labor was ended by the merger of the American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations. A revived Central Labor Council was
hailed as a promise of new labor militancy. Actually, the CIO had almost
no presence in Hawai'i. There was little basis for any new unity derived
from the merger even on the national level.
The Organizing Drive of the 1950s
An appeal to the International brought Charles Nichols to Hawai'i.
Dispatched from California, Nichols arrived in July of 1956, promising a
vigorous organizing drive. He saw a potential membership of 5,000
carpenters in Hawai'i.47 According to
Nichols, there were only 225 dues paying members in the union. In addition
to Hawai'i's high cost of living, Hawai'i's carpenters were at least
seventy cents per hour under Coast conditions.48 The estimate was probably too low. The Davis
Bacon wage for Hawai'i in 1956 was $2.20. For construction carpenters, the
range was $1.33 to $2.24. Since there was only one contract in effect, it
was most likely that the Hawai'i rate was not much over $2.00.49 In a 1957 interview for the Honolulu
Advertiser Gordon Scruton, manager of the General Contractor's
Association, admitted that the average construction worker in Hawai'i made
thirteen percent less than was paid for comparable work on the
mainland.50 And he was referring only to
O'ahu wages which were the highest. At the same time that Scruton was
quoting a $2.57 an hour wage, Local 745 representatives were on Kaua'i
trying to organize workers who were earning between $1.25 and $1.50 an
hour.51 Clearly, a major effort was
required.
The year 1956 seemed to be a turnaround year for Local 745. No less
than four election victories in a row were marked up: two sash and door
firms and two small general contractors. By the end of the year, however,
only one contract had been signed, providing five cents an hour raise and
no change in benefits. One gain during this time was the establishment of
a job classification system.
In 1957, the Hawaii Employers Council sounded the alarm in a news
story:
During the second half of last year [1956], the Carpenters,
the 'mud crafts' and the painters organized rapidly and without much
opposition. That this cannot continue was demonstrated last week when
the carpenters union lost its first representation election in five
attempts when Pacific Construction voted 38 to 24 against the
union.52
The news story
graphically illustrated the difficulty of organizing job by job. The
resources of the Local were stretched thin by this organizing effort.
From 1953 until 1959, the Local relied on the UBCJ to direct and
finance organizing campaigns. In 1953 and 1955, the national organization
forwarded money, and waived per capita taxes to assist the organizer who
accompanied the funds. With a team of local organizers led by Stanley
"Maui" Yanagi, the Local began organizing. They opened an office in the
McCandless Building on the corner of King and Bethel Streets, where a
number of the buliding trades unions as well as the Central Labor Council
were also setting up shop. It was furnished with $50.00 worth of furniture
supplied by Yanagi and Nichols. The membership base was less than
200.53
 McCandless
Building at 935 Bethel Street, Honolulu, Hawai'i, Local 745's Main
Office from 1954-1958 |
Encouraged by a resurgence of construction work, Local 745 began to
tackle the large contractors. The joint effort by the International and
the Local was an important step in the development of the union. There
were to be many obstacles, however, before the effort would be effective.
Looking back at this drive, Yanagi expressed the "almost" quality of the
organizing drive.
We even had the general contractors on the verge of signing
a master contract with us. If this contract had been signed, we would
have been on our way.54
What
happened to that progress is an important lesson in the importance of
trade union unity, the effects of racial intolerance and personal ambition
in the labor movement.
The Unity House approach developed by Art Rutledge broke down in 1957,
as the constituent unions matured. Local 745 had achieved two contracts
which granted little more than recognition, a grievance procedure, and
union security (the check off). The first large scale military housing
project strained the always tenuous Unity House alliance. This Schofield
Capehart Housing project was the largest construction job to develop in
Hawaii since World War II, and was valued at $21.5 million dollars.55
The Building and Construction Trades Council faced new problems. The
mainland contractors who won the bid for the project were accustomed to
dealing with the national construction unions at the top level, rather
than at the local level. In this case, the local Council attempted to
negotiate a master agreement, including a union shop, which would cover
all fourteen unions who made up the Council.56 Local 745 had by 1958 actually moved its
headquarters into Unity House offices.
The first evidence of growing differences with the Unity House approach
came when the Building and Construction Trades Council pulled out of the
Unity Pact. Apparently sensing that a master agreement with these mainland
contractors would be difficult to negotiate through Unity House, the
Council withdrew.57 They pledged themselves
to offer whatever mutual assistance the Unity House unions might need, but
they would no longer be an integral part of the Unity House group of
unions. At issue, apparently, was a concern on the part of Nichols and the
International that a new master agreement would be blocked by the diverse
interests represented in Unity House.58
When the master agreement was announced by Nichols, there was an immediate
uproar. Local 745 leaders, Charles Yamamoto and Stanley Yanagi, denounced
Nichols.59 They detailed their complaint to
General President Hutchinson: "Nichols has absolutely refused to give
President Yamamoto and the Board of Directors a copy of the alleged
contract agreement with the Contractors Association."60
At a meeting of the Local on March 4, 1959, the membership voted to
reject the contract offered by Nichols. Local President Yamamoto urged
Hutchinson to come to Honolulu to remedy the situation and to prevent a
split.
We further pray that you would remedy the situation
immediately and then come to Honolulu to restore the confidence of every
member of our Local Union in continued membership in the United
Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.61
This letter produced an immediate
threat of trusteeship.62 The history of
labor is filled with threats and counter threats. Frequently, the issues
are resolved in practical, working terms. President Yamamoto and several
of the officers of the Local immediately formed the Hawaii State
Construction Union as an answer to the threat of trusteeship. They
attempted to function as an independent construction union, based largely
on the resentment toward Nichols and the International. Joe Cambiano from
the California Council of Carpenters, began working to restore unity and
bring most of the dissidents back into the International.63
By June 12, 1959, a majority of the old officers of Local 745, led by
Stanley Yanagi, left the newly created union and returned as officers of
the UBCJ, Local 745.64 They moved the
Honolulu headquarters of the local out of the Unity House building at 1956
Ala Moana and into a new office at 949 McCully. The tactic of resigning
and forming a new group produced the required concessions. The Hawaii
local had grown in sophistication and strength. The affidavit they signed
clearly expresses the strength of the local officers:
Each is a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners of America, Local 745, AFL/CIO, and an officer thereof. . . .
Each was at the same time a member and an officer of the Hawaii State
Construction Union but before the date of this affidavit, each resigned
from both his membership and office in such organization.65
The rank and file had made their
point. The issue was local autonomy, rather than an issue of power.
The uproar in Local 745 over the issue of local autonomy, the Capehart
Schofield dispute, and dissatisfaction with the structure of the Building
Trades Council, led to a sweeping reorganization. Rutledge was removed as
Council President, largely to give the new Council a more definitive
building trades image.66 The obstacles to
labor unity created by media hostility were apparent in the press
treatment of this reorganization. The occasion was the appointment of Jack
Reynolds as Territorial Representative for the Building Trades Council. A
long time veteran of the construction trades and a strong union leader,
Reynolds had served for three years as the International Business
Representative. His appointment as Territorial Representative was seen as
a move to enhance local autonomy. A barrage of publicity in the local
press was unleashed, featuring lurid stories about Reynolds' past police
record. Much of that record had resulted from his long career as a trade
unionist.67 Pressure was brought to bear on
the A.F. of L. National Building Trades Council to oust Reynolds. Reynolds
quietly resigned his post. He remained active in the Council, however, as
business agent for the Roofers' Union and the Lathers' Union.
The reorganization was completed by the appointment of Walters Eli of
the IBEW as Council President. With a much more clearly focussed image as
a building trades organization, the new Council set out to improve the lot
of Hawai'i's construction unions.
By the end of 1958, despite the occasional representation election
victory, Local 745 had only two contracts in force: one with a small
construction firm, and one with a sash and door company. The local had won
other representation elections, but had not been able to negotiate
contracts. Winning representation elections was one step; negotiating
agreements was another matter.
The meager resources of the Local, in both financial and negotiating
skills, were under constant, heavy pressure. The Hawaii Employers Council
and the General Contractors Association were formidable and affluent foes.
The old Hawai'i tactic of management sharing of expenses incurred in
fighting organizing drives and strike losses made life difficult for the
unions. This tactic, borrowed from the Hawai'i sugar industry, had been
used since 1909 to control labor struggles. The ability to control the
media to give the public the employer viewpoint was one of the more
important aspects of this employer unity.
A major organizing need in the construction industry has been to
achieve basic wage and working conditions. Multiple wage rates and varying
work conditions allow the employer to manipulate the situation to the
disadvantage of the worker. When labor is united, group or industry wide
bargaining can produce important gains and prevent the exploitation of
individual workers. Above all else, such bargaining can produce uniform
job classifications, wage rates and benefits. The experience of the ILWU
in Hawai'i was perhaps the best example of the gains to be made from
industry wide bargaining. The Carpenters Union in 1958 had not yet reached
the required level of strength.
Yanagi hired Balloon Okamura and Sleepy Hokumura as organizers to help
Larry Shigeura. Together they spent months and months trying to sign up
Carpenters at different job sites. The work was hard and often reaped
little success. They would carry cases of beer on their shoulders and hike
up hills trying to catch workers at the end of their shifts and tell them
about the union, only to see the men run away at their approach for fear
of losing their jobs if they were caught talking to them.68 The union organizing effort increased
membership to approximately 1,500 that year, but there was still no master
contract.
Left to
right: Harry Fukuyama, Larry Shigeura, Stanley Yanagi, Robert
Higashino, and Yoshio "sleepy" Hokama, c.1960
|
NOTES:
- Interview, S.K., May 28, 1981.
- Reckman, "The Carpenter," 98 99.
- Fanning, Speech, 2.
- Hawaii Carpenter, August 24, 1977.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 16, 1953.
- Ibid. June 18, 1953.
- Interview, B.T., May 15, 1981.
- Ibid.
- Honolulu Advertiser, July 10, 1954.
- Ibid., July 16, 1954; Hawaii Employers Council, Memo, July
19, 1954,:HEC/GCA Contract Files, MF #25.
- Honolulu Advertiser, July 1O, l954.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 6, 1953.
- Hawaii Employers Council, Memo, July 19, 1954, HEC/GCA Contract
Files, MF #25.
- Honolulu Advertiser, July 10, 1954.
- Hawaii Employers Council, Notes on GCA Contract Negotiations,
HEC/GCA Contract Files, MF #25.
- Interview, S.K., May 28, 1981. The word kuleana is a Hawaiian term
meaning roughly the same thing as the modern slang "turf" -i.e.
jurisdiction; specialty; constituency.
- Hawaii Employers Council, Memo, July 19, 1954, HEC/GCA Contract
Files, MF #25.
- 745 Reporter, October, 1967.
- Honolulu Advertiser, July 13, 1956.
- George Remington, "Why Do Capehart Houses Cost More in Hawaii?"
Honolulu Advertiser, February 17, 1957.
- Hawaii Labor News, April 1, 1957.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Survey 1956, (Washington,
D.C.: GPO, 1957); Hawaii Employers Council, Wage Survey #30, January
1956.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 14, 1957.
- Hawaii Carpenter, June 22, 1973; 745 Reporter, October 1967.
- 745 Reporter, October 1967.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 17, 1957.
- Honolulu Advertiser, October 22, 1957.
- Ibid., November 13, 1957; Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
November 13, 1957.
- Interview, Carl Levey, August 25, 1981.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 25, 1957; Honolulu
Advertiser, November 26, 1957.
- Board of Directors, Local 745, to Maurice Hutchinson, General
President, U.B.C.J., March 4, 1959, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and
Joiners, Archives.
- Ibid.
- Telegram, Hutchinson to Local 745, March 19, 1959, U.B.C.J.
Archives, xerox copy.
- Hawaii Carpenter, August 24, 1977.
- Affidavit, June 12, 1959, U.B.C.J. Archives; Hawaii Carpenter,
Yanagi column, May 12, 1969.
- Affidavit, June 12, 1959.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, May 29, 1959; June 5, 1959.
- Honolulu Advertiser, September 24, 1958; Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, October 17, 1958, "Ex-con Stays on Isles Job, Gray
Declares."
- Hawaii Carpenter, February 26, 1972.
Part VI: Local Autonomy and Maturity
The First Industry Wide Contract
The turmoil of the 1950's was a prelude to the achievement of the first
industry wide, multiple union agreement in July 196O. The Labor and
Industrial Relations Committee of the General Contractors Association met
with the Building Trades Council Committee and presented a three year
agreement on July 29, 1960. The Council team, headed by Walter Eli,
consisted of Stanley Yanagi for the Carpenters, Hal Lewis for the
Operating Engineers, Elmo Samson of the General Laborers, and Walter
Whitcomb of the Plasterers Union.69
The agreement [see appendix A] provided for a modified union shop. Old
employees were not required to join; new employees were required to join
within eight days. A rather weak and vague grievance procedure was a
distinctly negative feature, but the union had the right to appoint
stewards who were guaranteed reasonable access to job sites. An important
gain was the introduction of a medical plan, with a joint union management
committee, which in the final two years would include full family
coverage. Eight paid holidays, wage increases from $3.00 to $3.70 over the
three years, and overtime at one and one half times the rate after eight
hours or forty hours for the week and for all holidays, completed the
package.
This was an important, precedent setting contract, not so much for the
terms as for the procedure in negotiating. Involving the four basic
construction unions and the employers in an industry wide agreement did
much to reduce labor management conflicts. The high cost, both in
organizational effort and money, is sharply reduced by such contracts.
Employer resistance to labor's demands is no less, and labor still has to
struggle to win its goals. The difference was largely in the fact that it
was no longer necessary for each union to constantly re fight the battle
for each gain.
The decade of the 1960's marked a significant change in the
construction industry. The boom which came with statehood seemed to fade
in 1962. Construction employment which had reached a high of 18,619 in
July 1960, fell to 15,233 by May 1962, and was predicted to fall
further.70 Housing starts declined by
approximately thirty percent between 1960 and 1962.
New Legal Problems
By the early 1960s, Supreme Court interpretations of the National Labor
Relations Act, particularly the Taft Hartley Amendments, created many new
difficulties for the construction trade unions. Three key decisions
established the categories of "primary and secondary" employees. The
secondary employees, those employed by contractors not involved in the
dispute, were declared to be "neutral employees". Historically, the strike
has been accompanied by the picket line. These court decisions created a
problem as to the site of picketing. The court created fiction of the
neutral employee effectively prohibited the picketing of subcontractors on
a construction site.71
Given the fragmentation of skills and the introduction of new, non wood
construction materials, contractors were able to effectively inhibit
organizational activities through the threat of secondary boycott
charges.72 The construction unions
responded to these new legal obstacles to organizing and efforts to
protect working conditions, by engaging in a tactic known as
"informational picketing". The unions simply proclaimed that this job site
included non union conditions, unfair employers and/or scab workers. These
"picket lines" recognized the fact that the traditional reluctance to
cross a picket line had to be modified in line with the legal realities
imposed by the National Labor Relations Act and its amendments.
An example of "informational picketing" occurred during the 1962
expansion of Honolulu Airport. An insulation and floor subcontractor was
picketed by the asbestos workers. This had the effect of slowing other
work, as the member unions of the Council put the contract machinery into
operation. The industry wide contract contained a clause requiring the
submission of such situations to a joint committee made up of three chosen
by the union and three by the employers. The move was seen by the
contractors "as an obvious effort to organize by the device of
informational picketing. This first outbreak must be stopped."73 Despite the outburst, the issue was resolved
through the contract machinery, demonstrating the utility of trying to
recognize the realities modern construction methods and the need for
worker security. Both sides were developing a greater sophistication in
their tactics.
Pensions and Mechanization
Another important breakthrough for construction labor also came in 1962
when the I.B.E.W. Local 1186 negotiated a new contract calling for a wage
increase to $4.50 per hour. More important, this contract provided for the
first pension plan in the construction industry. It was estimated that the
plan would provide a pension of approximately $300 per month on retirement
at age fifty five. Included in this agreement, was a novel plan to deal
with automation and new technology. A training fund was established for
new and old workers. The negotiator for Local 1186 declared that the
"emphasis on non wage items is in itself a revolutionary switch in the
thinking of construction union negotiators."74
These gains were not unnoticed by the employers. An analysis of
construction labor was requested of the Hawaii Employers Council. This
study reached some interesting, if somewhat strange, conclusions.
According to the H.E.C., the I.B.E.W. contract just concluded was
subverting the historic function of wages. They argued that the function
of wages was not to reward the worker for his labor, but rather wages were
intended to bring about a distribution of labor geographically; that is,
to induce labor mobility. The H.E.C. study might well have concluded that
unions were equally subversive. They went on to say that no further wage
increases in the construction industry could be tolerated. Any further
wage increases would result in a contraction of the building industry and
thus reduce employment.
We do not need further wage increases in the construction
industry. The excessive demands of the construction unions are receiving
national and even presidential attention.75
Aside from the out dated economic
theories presented, the memorandum reflected the growing tendency to blame
wage increases for the increasing rate of inflation. President Kennedy had
called for a national policy of wage restraint. No one, not the H.E.C. nor
anyone on the national level, was asking questions about the relative
shares of construction costs. Land costs, financing, materials costs all
of which are major contributors to cost inflation were not discussed. As
usual, wages were trailing behind the other costs of construction. And
nowhere was any account taken of the enormous increase in labor
productivity.
It is difficult to grasp the extent of the technological changes in the
construction industry. The proliferation of new materials and techniques
in the 1960's brought many new workers to the construction site. Dry wall
workers, floor and linoleum layers, ceiling and asbestos workers, all
became construction workers. Specialty workers, doing limited jobs on each
site, they were difficult to organize. "The carpenters, having fewer
things to make, lost both craft skill and trade security." 76
These facts did not alter the campaign to attack wage rates as the
principal source of inflation. Although inflation of prices is a complex
phenomenon, the media tends to reflect the industry argument that wages
are the principal cause of price increases. When the I.L.W.U. won wage
increases for the bakery workers in 1962, there was much lamenting about
how "bread prices will soar." The wages denounced began at $2.31 per hour
and would advance, by 1966, to $3.565 per hour.77 No newspaper story covered the
incredible mechanization occurring in the baking industry. The sharp
increase in the concentration of ownership in many industries,
construction included, with a corresponding decline in competition was
seldom mentioned as a factor in price inflation. All of these same
arguments were marshalled against the building trades' demands for a
living wage and job security.
By focusing on wage rates, the industry was diverting attention from
the significant technological changes in the industry. Wage rates were
going up. New tools, new materials, and new industry organization were
rapidly lowering the labor cost of a building. Not only were fewer
construction workers creating more structures, they were doing it in less
time. Even in 1969, carpenter wages accounted for only seven percent of
total building cost.78
The Hawaii Employers Council proved to be a formidable obstacle to
labor gains. In the Hawaiian construction industry, those employers
utilizing H.E.C. bargaining were able to establish smaller settlements
than non Council members. The H.E.C. negotiated an average wage increase
of eleven cents per hour as compared to fourteen cents per hour for non
Council settlements.79 Any gains for labor
came out of hard bargaining and labor unity.
The 1963 Contract
Several months before negotiations on the new contract, Jack Reynolds
announced that the construction unions were being asked to contribute to a
strike fund. Reynolds claimed that the H.E.C. "had taken over the General
Contractors Association, and the adoption of the former's hard labor
policy makes a strike inevitable when the master contract expires
September 1."80 Despite the fact
that the G.C.A. negotiator was a former H.E.C. employee and a member of
the G.C.A. Labor Committee, Philip Maxwell, H.E.C. president, insisted
that the Employers Council was not negotiating for the G.C.A. Reynolds
called for a strike fund and urged members to begin to lay in a store of
canned goods. Bargaining was to begin in May.81 The second industry wide agreement
promised to be a tough one to secure.
With the expiration of the first industry contract, the unions put
forward a new list of demands that represented a long step toward a strong
contract that would offer decent wages and good working conditions. These
demands, as presented to the General Contractors Association, included: a
straight union shop, respect for authorized picket lines, travel time, a
hiring hall referral system, a rate for high rise construction, a jointly
administered health and welfare fund, an apprentice training fund, and
limiting subcontractors to signatories. The employers rejected all of the
demands, some more strongly than others. For example, they rejected the
demand for limiting subcontractors with no dissent. The demand for a
hiring hall was turned down by a two to one margin.82
Bargaining on this contract was complicated by the lack of unity among
the members of the Building and Construction Trades Council. The
Carpenters and the General Laborers Union had decided to negotiate their
own, separate, contracts. The headquarters of the Local were moved from
McCully to Room 308 at 904 Kohou Street on Kapalama Stream in the same
building with Local 368 of the Laborers union. The Council was negotiating
for the remaining twelve craft unions. On the other side, there was a
total of fifty nine general contractors and twelve home builders. These
contractors employed some 4,481 construction workers in the various
crafts. The Building and Construction Trades Council showed the following
employment: Carpenters, 1,462; Laborers, 1,104; Operating Engineers, 770;
other trades, 1,025. To these basic tradesmen could be added another 3,054
workers in the auxiliary crafts, such as iron workers, roofers, lathers,
plumbers, and plasterers.83
The construction unions had clearly arrived at a position of strength.
A strike in September would paralyze the construction industry on Oahu.
One estimate placed the value at $200 million.
In August, Local 745 voted, some 3,000 strong, to strike if contract
negotiations failed by August 31. They were joined by the 1,500 member
General Laborers. The carpenters were demanding an increase of $1.55 per
hour. Management countered with an offer of 0.78 cents. Beyond this meager
wage offer, Reynolds said the employers were discussing "only the weather,
tourism and land. They have made no meaningful offer." Stanley Yanagi
urged the members to make the strike vote to bring up Hawaii's wages to
mainland standards. He said, "This year we are determined to make certain
we win parity with the mainland."84
The negotiations were interrupted when the Laborers Union, angered by
non union subcontractors at the Queen Emma and Kuhio Park Terrace
projects, put up picket lines. Negotiations broke off immediately.85 Subcontracting was an issue of growing
importance. As the size of buildings increased, more and more work was
being shifted to sub contractors. Non union workers, high pressure speed
up tactics, sub standard wages and frequently poor safety conditions,
characterized many subcontractors. The carpenters had made union
subcontractors a high priority issue in this contract. The breaking off of
negotiations produced a new element in bargaining. Fearing a complete
shutdown of the vital construction industry, Governor John Burns formed a
team and offered to mediate. William Norwood, aide to the Governor, Robert
K. Hasegawa, Deputy Labor Director, and Attorney General Bert Kobayashi,
sat in on the negotiations.86
Long, difficult sessions brought an agreement on the Queen Emma project
between the four unions and the fifty member General Contractors
Association. Burns expressed the hope that contract negotiations could be
resumed immediately so as to avert a total shutdown.
Negotiations were resumed. A ray of hope appeared when the Plumbers and
the Electricians Union reached agreement with the G.C.A. The four basic
crafts agreed to extend the old contract on a day to day basis as long as
progress toward an agreement continued. There was a general feeling that
both sides wanted to avert a walkout.87
The terms won by the plumbers and electricians was a harbinger of
good fortune for the others. A union shop, good increases in the pension
fund, health and welfare, and a meaningful training fund were established.
An agreement was rumored on September 14. Before meetings could be
held, Art Rutledge jumped into the negotiations, demanding a role for
Teamsters who drove for the members of the G.C.A. Rutledge's challenge was
reinforced by an agreement between Teamsters Local 996 and the Operating
Engineers Local 3. Such an alliance could effectively stop almost any
construction project. A complicating factor was that when the Laborers'
put up their picket lines at the Queen Emma project in July, the Operating
Engineers crossed the lines, claiming a contract forced their move.88 The Building and Construction Trades
Council voted to endorse the Teamster demand.
The Governor's team and federal mediator William Hillenbrand worked
through the conflict and presented a settlement acceptable to both sides
on September 24. The compromise terms offered were 90 cents per hour over
three years; ten cents per hour for pensions, and a union shop. On this
point, old employees were given until the end of 1963 to join the union.
New hires were given eight days to join.
An important gain for the union was the adoption of a new job security
clause. Whereas the employer had always been the sole judge of competence
and had unlimited dismissal rights, this contract specified that dismissal
could only be for just cause and prohibited assignment of work outside the
craft except where qualified workers were not available.89
The role of the Governor's office was important to the settlement of
the contract. Neither side wanted to contest the strength of Governor
Burns. It was generally conceded that he was playing an impartial role,
seeking to avoid the disastrous strike which could have hampered the
developing boom in the Hawaiian economy.
The 1963 contract was an important milestone in the development of
Local 745. Organizer Larry Shigeura later wrote an article for the monthly
newsletter, entitled, "We've Come a Long Way." Looking back to the time
when he joined the union in April, 1941, as a helper, he briefly sketched
the drastic changes in working conditions, wages, and, above all, the
change from a weak union representing a large transient population of
mainland carpenters to a union representing a majority of the craft and
already beginning to move to the outer islands.90
After the 1963 contact, efforts to organize the construction industry
on the Neighbor Islands picked up in earnest. As part of their drive in
sugar and pineapple, the I.L.W.U. succeeded in signing up approximately
150 carpenters on Maui and a handful on the Big Island. An organizing
effort in 1959 by the Building Trades council on Maui resulted in a four
and a half month strike, involving some 160 building trades workers.
Although an agreement was reached with the contractors, a majority of the
workers had by then moved to Oahu.91
The 1967 Contract
The new found strength and maturity of the Local were put to a severe
test in the bargaining for the 1967 contract. As an evidence of the
dramatically changed circumstances of 1967, the Local was negotiating with
two groups, the Home Builders Association and the General Contractors'
Association. The sixty Home Builders employed some 1,400 carpenters and
the fifty member G.C.A. only 1,100.92
Despite this fundamental change, the early bargaining on the new
contract seemed to be a replay of the 1963 bargaining. The union asked for
a three year contract and a wage increase that would effectively end the
disparity between wages in Hawaii and craft wages on the mainland. Stanley
Yanagi explained that the carpenters had been falling behind the mainland
and would require a $1.55 per hour increase, over three years, to end that
colonial wage situation.
Yanagi called for a strike assessment to bolster the union's bargaining
position. The resulting vote on the assessment passed. However, the
turnout was surprisingly low. The vote was 207 to 115 for the assessment.
The leadership decided to make the assessment voluntary in view of the
U.B.C.J. constitutional provision for a two thirds majority on such votes.
A $15.00 per week voluntary payment was called for in July.93
The contractors responded to the union demands with an offer of 78
cents per hour spread over five years.94
With the contract ending on August 31, round the clock bargaining
was initiated by Governor Burns, just as he had done in 1963. On September
5, 1967, negotiations were broken off at 3:30 a.m. in a deadlock.95
Yanagi announced that the union had signed with Home Builders'
Association and some non G.C.A. contractors. Picket lines were to be set
up on a selective basis. The G.C.A. responded with a lockout at all G.C.A.
projects, including the new State Capitol Building. This threatened the
planned opening of the new building in January, 1968. Both sides began to
move from their previous positions. The union's final position was $1.44
over three years and the G.C.A. had come up to $1.10 over five years.
The Contractors admitted that the carpenter wage was behind other
crafts, but they insisted that a five year contract was the most essential
need of the industry. Yanagi showed that the gap between the carpenters
and the iron workers was more than $1.00 per hour. The agreement with the
Home Builders was for a $1.30 package divided between 95 cents for wages
and 35 cents for fringe benefits, including contributions to a new
training fund.96 This raise would
produce an hourly wage of $5.50 by 1970. The Local ratified the Home
Builders agreement by a vote of 642 to 158.
The Home Builders agreement did not end the difficulty. The situation
was complicated at this point by the announcement of a Laborers' strike
against G.C.A. which would have to be settled before a general return to
work. This development put an additional pressure on the negotiating team
to reach a basic agreement which would enable subsidiary craft agreements
to be reached.
The eleven day Carpenters' strike was finally resolved when Governor
Burns announced a settlement on September 14. The gains were significant.
The five year contract gave a $1.83 wage package. Significant boosts in
health and welfare and pensions were achieved. A two cent per hour
assessment for a joint training fund was established.
Local 745's newsletter carried a banner headline: "The Best Contract in
745 History." In his monthly column, "Shavings," Yanagi looked back over
his years as Financial Secretary and Business Representative, and
concluded, "now we have finally come of age." He announced that strikers
and those doing picket duty would be paid $6.00 per day, a maximum of $42
for the short strike. Conversely, those working during the strike would
contribute an equal amount.97
The most significant part of this agreement was the final achievement
of the three elements necessary for job security: the union shop, the
hiring hall, and a "just cause only" dismissal clause. Without these three
clauses, the worker is at the complete mercy of the employer, regardless
of his skill or performance. Now the competent, conscientious worker had
reasonable protection against arbitrary dismissal. These provisions,
coupled with an elected shop steward, provided the worker with significant
job security.98
745
Reporter, October 1967 |
For many of the members of Local 745, introduction to the craft had
come either as an apprentice to a cottage builder or as a worker on one of
the plantations. Most of these employers had no pension plans. Many
carpenters faced a bleak future at retirement age. The pension plan of the
1967 contract was a first long step toward correcting this inequity
problem.
In January, 1968, the first member to qualify under the Carpenters'
Pension Fund was Noburo Yamashita. He had begun work in Hilo in 1920 and
then moved to plantation work for many years.
I was paid $3 a day when I started. I went to work on the
plantation at $40 per month, working 48 hours a week. Then I came to
Honolulu and worked for contractor Nakamoto for $2.75 per eight hour
day. There were no such things as time a half, pensions or medical. Now
the carpenters earn more in a day than what it took us a month to
earn.99
Yamashita was only the
first of a steadily growing number of old timers who qualified. Some, like
Zenichi Hashimoto, second longest in membership, became the fifteenth to
qualify for a pension. Although most of his career as a carpenter was
spent in Hilo, then a non union town, Hashimoto faithfully maintained his
membership in Local 745. The local finally brought him to Honolulu so he
could work under a union contract and qualify for pension benefits.100
Although not a part of the contract, the 1967 strike saw a new
development in the community. Tired of hearing from the press and
employers about the greed of unions, Local 745 leaders provided an example
of the carpenter from a different perspective. Harry Kiyota, Stanley Ito,
Carl Levey, Charles Okamura, and Danny Kamiya restored the Moiliili
Community Center, repairing and building new staircases, repairing windows
and doors, and generally shaping up the heavily used, but aged, community
center. As the Union paper put it: "It proves to the community at large
that we carpenters are good solid citizens of the community where we and
our families work, live, and play."101
In another significant development after the 1967 contract, Local 745
reached an agreement in 1968 to absorb I.L.W.U. carpenter members on Maui.
Walter Kupau, newly appointed administrative assistant to the Financial
Secretary, met with Jack Hall, Regional Director of the I.L.W.U. to work
out an agreement to shift all the carpenters into Local 745. Also involved
in these discussions were Elmo Samson of the Laborers Union, Jack Reynolds
of the Building and Construction Trades Council, and Blackie Fujikawa of
the State Federation. Kupau and Hall agreed that all the carpenters should
be in one union to prevent rivalry which would weaken labor. After some
persuasion, the others, including the Maui I.L.W.U., agreed. In exchange
for an agreement not to raid or interfere with building materials firms
and cabinet shops organized by the I.L.W.U., the transfer was made. The
transfer terms included a far reaching agreement on cooperation and
support for the organizing activities of both unions.102 An important voice on Maui that helped
make this agreement possible for the Carpenters was their star island
organizer, Mamoru "Mamo" Okuda. He was not only the Business Agent and
chief organizer for the Local but also headed the jointly operated offices
of the Building Trades Council on that island.103
At the same time that the agreement was reached with the I.L.W.U., the
Maui members of Local 745, tiring of the foot dragging tactics of the
contractors in their negotiations, took a strike vote. They voted
unanimously to strike unless the contractors agreed to the same terms and
conditions existing in Honolulu. The show of unity apparently convinced
the contractors. Once and for all, the Local put an end to "second class"
conditions on the Neighbor Islands.
Meanwhile, Stanley Yanagi appointed three new organizers to deal with
non union carpenters throughout the state. Stanley Ito, Wilbert Morikawa
and Ronald Yang were selected to head an organizing drive.104 Membership began to grow and reached
significant levels in a few years: Maui, 900; Kauai, 600; and Hawaii, 650.
In Honolulu, the Local scored again after a short strike in early 1968
at Hicks Homes. After repeated demands for changes in the standard
contract, the workers got tired of waiting and struck. The Company quickly
signed a satisfactory agreement.105
The Apprentice Training Program
The training fund established in the 1967 contract was quickly
implemented. In November 1968, Robert C. Knight, Executive Secretary of
the State Federation of Labor, was selected to head the apprentice
training program. Former Local 745 President, Carl Levey, was appointed to
represent the local and to assist in the training. The program initiated
by these two men was a unique blend of education and hands on training.
The initial program was to train 600 new apprentices. Later, a program for
re training and up grading journeymen carpenters was to be
undertaken.106
No longer could apprentices hand in contractors' timesheets as evidence
of training. Levey had experience in the old training program run by the
State, serving as President of the Apprenticeship Board for three years.
He also shared instructional duties in the program with Sueo Kawakami,
long time member of the union and an instructor in the vocational program
at Honolulu Technical School.
The apprentice training program, under Bob Knight's leadership and
supported by employer contributions, took a new direction. Classroom
instruction was combined with "hands on training".
Each kid would have to go through a continuous program from
the time he took up a hammer, learned how to saw, use a chisel, set
doors, box or hang doors we innovated all that. They had to learn to use
the framing square and they were graded on all of that.107
Levey measured the success of
the program by the fact that in one chance visit to a lumber yard, he met
five former apprentices who were now independent contractors.
Faced with a potential shortage of skilled workers, the training
program was an important addition to local employment opportunities.
Without the program, it would have been necessary to again import workers
from the mainland. At its peak, the program graduated 300 apprentices
every six weeks. These apprentices worked on the job under journeymen
supervision for three years before being admitted to full craftsmen status
in the union.
An important feature of the training program was the journeyman
training offered. Working carpenters were offered the opportunity to
acquire new skills and to deal with the rapidly changing technology of
construction. New materials now in common use and new high rise techniques
were essential for journeymen if they were to maintain their skill level
and job security. The comprehensive nature of the training insured that
those emerging from the program would be able to hold their own on the job
as journeymen carpenters.
Prior to this joint labor management training program, there was only
an indifferently administered apprenticeship program under
territorial/state administration, and the more effective vocational school
programs. These latter programs turned out a limited number of students
each year. At Honolulu Technical School, later Honolulu Community College,
Sueo Kawakami introduced his students to the skills of carpentry and to
the fact of the union and its role in the industry. Coming out of a long
apprenticeship as a "cottage builder", Kawakami first became aware of the
Carpenters Union when he joined the rapid expansion of Pearl Harbor in
1941. As soon as he became aware of the union, he joined and remained an
active member. From 1959 until the establishment of the joint training
fund, his program was the only one offering O'ahu youth an opportunity to
learn a craft and to learn about the union movement. Trained in the
traditional Japanese methods of construction and continuing to work
summers on construction jobs, Kawakami confronted the problem of rapidly
changing techniques. During his work career, concrete forms changed
radically from ship lap forms to resin treated plywood and metal forms.
These changing technologies and new materials made the apprentice training
program a matter of great importance. No longer would young men come into
the craft without knowing about the union, and forced to acquire skills on
a catch as catch can basis.
An early effort to insure that succeeding generations of carpenters
would have the necessary training and experience to carry on the craft.
Walter Kupau, president of the State Federation, took the unusual step of
setting up a pre apprenticeship program in Waimanalo. The youth of this
community had long been the subject of ridicule and abuse. Initially, the
program signed up nineteen youths in an eight week program. Aided by the
State Department of Labor, trainees were paid $50 per week, provided a set
of tools to use during the course. On completion of the course, the
trainees could enroll in the regular apprenticeship program. The program
was marked by a simplicity lacking in other state and federal programs.
Robert Knight, Director of the apprentice program, said, "Labor and
government moved faster than they ever could under any federal
program."108
Alcan L.S.I.
As land and financing costs rose in the United States, many areas
turned to mobile homes and prefabricated houses. Built on assembly lines
by largely unskilled workers, this form of housing cut sharply into the
carpenter job pool. These came to Hawaii in 1969. Local 745 Administrative
Assistant Walter Kupau quickly pointed to the illusory quality of these
"homes". When land and financing costs were added, these prefabs equalled
or exceeded the construction costs of the traditional small home. A one
bedroom duplex unit was priced at approximately $15,000, delivered to the
site. Kupau explained, "...you can get an adequate, three bedroom house
built right here and now for $15,000. Houses in Waipahu were being built
for $13,100, "but the price to the buyer is $25,000."109 The difference was in the cost of the
land, development costs, and financing.
The following year, a mainland conglomerate, Alcan Lear Sigler
Industries (Alcan LSI) arrived in Hawaii, announcing that their Hawaii
factory would build homes to sell for $13,000. Newly elected State
Federation of Labor President Walter Kupau once again denounced the
misleading figures, as did the AFL CIO Building Trades Council Executive
Secretary Jack Reynolds. Their press conference showed the price of the
Alcan LSI house to be at least $27,000 when all costs were considered.
Kupau calculated that such factory built homes would result in a loss of
6,500 building trades workers. The unions quickly pointed out that the
State could release more land for homesites and develop low interest
financing for workers as a real solution to Hawaii's housing problem.110
The Local negotiated a contract with Alcan LSI in 1971, covering 750
factory workers. A total of 4,000 homes were planned. The contract
provided a top pay of $6.13, plus fringe benefits of medical, dental, and
life insurance. This brought the factory workers to the level of the
carpenters' basic contract.111
Recession Times, 1970s
A new complication in the union struggle to win decent wages and
working conditions surfaced in 1971. The deteriorating economic condition
of the United States economy led President Nixon to proclaim a wage freeze
and to suspended the Davis Bacon act covering federal construction
projects. The impact of the escalating costs of the war in Vietnam were
responsible for this move. Once again Hawaii's workers were under federal
pay constraints. Further complicating the picture was the sharp downturn
in construction. The 43 day longshore strike had dried up the supply of
building materials and the construction boom of 1969 70 was coming to an
end.112 The federal Pay Board
finally approved the remaining terms of the 1970 contract which cleared
the way for a 25cent raise due on August 31. The year was ending better
than it began.
Local 745 was now the largest carpenter local in the United States. The
great strides made in the 1967 contract were up for renegotiation in 1972.
Construction industry employment had declined somewhat. The union was
confident, however, and made plans for vigorous bargaining. A strike fund
assessment of $5 per month was levied in May.
In the midst of these preparations, the union squared off for another
of its hotly contested leadership elections. Long time financial secretary
and business representative, Stanley Yanagi, was challenged by former
president, Charles Yamamoto. In a close contest, Yanagi defeated Yamamoto
by 424 votes.113 A critic of the
union leadership for many years, Yamamoto had led the revolt against
domination by the International officers in 1959. That dispute resulted in
the removal of International representative, Charles Nichols. Yamamoto and
a group of dissidents left the U.B.C.J. and formed an independent union.
Within a few months, the International had patched up the dispute and
restored local control to the Union.
As the expiration date of the contract drew near, the local took a
strike vote. The members authorized a strike, 1,864 to 107, should
negotiations fail.
In the past, contract negotiations were conducted by groups -the four
basic craft unions, the subsidiary construction crafts, home builders, and
cabinet makers.114 Industry now
proposed a joint negotiation process: industry meeting with all fourteen
craft unions.
In October, the leadership brought a contract to the membership that
was described as "revolutionary". It would bring Hawaii's carpenters from
a rank of fourteenth in wages and benefits in the construction industry,
to the rank of fourth. The contract provisions designed by Walter Kupau,
Administrative Assistant, were to deal with the fact that the carpenters
had fallen seriously behind the other building trades unions. Limited by
the Johnson administration's Wage Board policies of trying to confine wage
increases to six percent, the wage portion met that requirement. The great
change was the novel method of "adjustment".
Three adjustments, beginning in 1975 and continuing to 1977, were
planned. The first would give one third of the difference of the average
between the top five scales and the carpenters' scale. In March, 1976, one
half of the difference of the average, and in March, 1977, a final
adjustment, would bring the wage and benefit package to $11.84 per hour.
Other new features were double time for all overtime and holidays, an
additional paid holiday making nine all together, a vacation holiday fund,
and a working foreman pay base of $7.13 plus fringe benefits.
Despite the rapid changes in the Hawaiian economy and the great
expansion of the construction industry, Local 745's governing structure
remained remarkably stable. The presidency frequently changed hands, as
did some of the other eleven elected positions in hotly contested
elections. The one exception was the position of the Financial Secretary.
This office was sometimes combined with that of the Business
Representative. From 1953 until his death in 1977, the Financial Secretary
was Stanley S. Yanagi.
Despite this long term leadership, by the 1970's the rate of retirement
was bringing substantial changes. Larry Shigeura, who with Yasuo "Sleepy"
Hokama and Stanley Ito, had done much of the critical organizing in the
decade of the 1960's, retired. From his days as a carpenter's helper in
1941 to his final job as organizer and editor of the Local's newsletter,
Shigeura had participated in all of the struggles of building the union.
He saw it grow from a small, ineffective organization to a union with
twelve units covering the state, including drywall, lathers, and factory
workers.
The union now had to hold an annual meeting to bring the diverse
members together for policy decisions. The first of these meetings was
held on August 18, 1972, at the Ilikai Hotel. This two day convention was
to become a regular part of the Local's activities. Recalling the days
when Yanagi had to furnish the union office out of his own pocket and
there was frequently no money to pay staff, Shigeura concluded the Local
had come a long way.115 Now,
industry leaders and state officials came to the conventions as guest
speakers.
Shortly after the first annual meeting in 1972, the Local moved into a
new and spacious building of its own. Dedicated as the Stanley S. Yanagi
Building, in honor of his long service to the Local, the occasion brought
together many participants in the Local's history. Among them were Charles
Nichols and General President William Sidell of the International.116
Dedication of the Carpenters'
Building, May 19, 1973. From left to right: Charles E. Nichols,
General Treasurer of the International; Mrs Stanley Yanagi; Stanlet
"Maui" Yanagi, Financial Secretary and Business Representative of
the local; and William Sidell, President of the International.
Hawaii Carpenter, June 22, 1973
|
Local 745's Honolulu Headquarters
since 1973 at 1311 Houghtailing Street, Honolulu, Hawai'i
|
As the time for the 1975 union elections drew near, there was
speculation that Stanley Yanagi would step down. nearing age sixty five
and having held the position for twenty one years, he toyed with the
notion of retiring. Yamamoto announced he would try a third time for the
position. Another candidate was Administrative Assistant Walter Kupau. He
had held his position for seven and half years and had been President of
the State Federation of Labor for five years. Kupau was quickly removed
from his key administrative position, and demoted to organizer.117 Yanagi later charged that the State
Federation of Labor was unduly biased and was interfering in the internal
affairs of the local. The Executive Board of Local 745 voted to leave the
State Federation. Yanagi swept to another victory, 2,959 to 1,031 over
Kupau. Subsequent complaints of unfair election tactics were
dismissed.118 Yanagi later charged
that the State Federation of Labor was unduly biased and was interfering
in the internal affairs of the Local. The Executive oard of Local 745
voted to leave the State Federation.119
As the 1972 contract drew to a close, the carpenters' pension,
receiving the second adjustment, went from a maximum of $450 per month to
$600. This was exceeded only by the I.B.E.W. pension, long the highest in
the industry. This good news was accompanied by the bad news that some 600
carpenters were unemployed in the 7,000 man local.
Over the years construction workers have had to suffer from bust-boom
employment cycles which would often mean forced overtime during boom
periods and lay-offs or "sitting on the bench" as its called during low
periods. Failing to understand the unpredictable nature of construction
work, the public has rarely had any sympathy for the workers' attempts to
improve their wages and benefits. Learning what the hourly wage of a
Carpenter is, the average person commonly multiplies it times 40 hours a
week and assumes, quite mistakenly, that's what a Carpenter is likely to
make in a week, and that times 52 is the Carpenter's annual salary. Few
realize that the average Carpenter in any given year may only have had
that kind if work for twenty or thirty weeks.
In the 1970s Construction workers faced a new problem which threatened
to reduce even more the few months in a year they were likely to find
work. Reflecting on the great changes that the state and particularly
Honolulu had undergone in the 60s, new movements rose up in the community
opposing further development and seeking to bring a complete halt to
construction. The Council of the City and County of Honolulu went so far
as to propose a moratorium in 1976. On December 3rd, thousands of members
of Local 745 together with even more members of the other Building Trades
unions marched on City Hall in protest.
The Union
March to City Hall on Friday, December 3, 1976, Honolulu,
Hawai'i |
The politicians had made the mistake of assuming that the pleas of the
union leaders they had heard did not represent a truly public interest. On
December 3, according to press estimates, 5000 workers marched down
Kapi'olani Boulevard from the Blaisdell Center to City Hall in order to
demonstrate that they were tax-paying, voting members of the public as
much as anyone else.120
Walter Kupau:
Despite Stanley Yanagi's overwhelming victory in 1975 over his former
administrative aid, Walter Kupau, it was clear Yanagi's health was
flagging and change was inevitable. Kupau was just as clearly the most
able leader in the local. The son of an Army officer, he was born in
Kalihi in 1937. Growing up in that poorer and notoriously rough-neck part
of Honolulu, Kupau is one of an ever decreasing minority of indigenous
Hawaiians, who have been struggling without much success for cultural
identity in the state's American institutions.121 Though his family was able to send him
to a local parochial high school for a time, like many Native Hawaiians he
had difficulty adjusting to formal education. Eventually his family sent
him to live with relatives in San Francisco.122 He graduated from high school there
and spent three years in the Army Corps of Engineers. After that, he
returned to Hawaii and started working first as a construction laborer
then, in the early 60s, he worked his way through the union apprenticeship
program and began work as a union carpenter.
In 1965 he was elected job steward for the workers at the Lagoon Towers
at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and began a rapid rise through the union's
leadership. He quickly developed a reputation as a "go for broke" union
organizer, but he was also an avid supporter of community associations and
projects that focused on the improvement of poor Hawaiian community in the
Kalihi-Palama neighborhood of downtown Honolulu. He organized the Palama
Athletic Association to raise money for uniforms and playing equipment and
helped Palama Settlement build a new boxing ring. In the late 60s with
help from Governor Burns, he set up a training program for delinquent
teen-agers in Waimanalo's 77-acre "Sherwood Forest" into the Carpenters'
apprenticeship program.123
From the beginning, Kupau became well known for his bold political
endorsements. When the State Federation of Labor's COPE (Committee on
Political Education) endorsed a city council slate opposed to then
councilman Matsuo Takabuki, Kupau broke the Carpenters away from the
federation and campaigned vigorously for Takabuki and against Mayoral
candidate Frank Fasi. The following year, he was elected President of the
Hawaii State AFL-CIO in what turned out to be a referendum to support
Governor Burns' for re-election over those in the federation who supported
the bid being made by Lt. Governor Thomas Gill.124 In the 80s and 90s Kupau would become
a major supporter of Mayor Fasi and disaffected with Burns' democratic
successors, Governors Ariyoshi and Waihee, despite totally opposite
endorsement trends in the rest of the State AFL-CIO.125
President of the State AFL-CIO from 1969 to 1984, he was in the early
70s serving as the Administrative Assistant to the former Financial
Secretary of the Carpenters' local, Stanley Yanagi. He ran against Yanagi
in 1975 for that position and lost, though he won re-election as president
of the State AFL-CIO.
Walter Kupau Local 745's Financial Secretary
and Business Representative, 1979-1999 Reprinted by
permission Honolulu Advertiser, October 6, 1977 |
 |
In 1977 Kupau launched a campaign to stop what he believed was
organized crime's attempt to gain control of the state's key construction
unions, naming Henry Huihui and Wilfred "Nappy" Pulawa as the two most
notorious criminal figures in that effort.126 Then in 1978, almost a year after
Stanley Yanagi passed away, Walter Kupau won election in a hotly contested
race against Yanagi's hand-picked successor. In a rare example of
intervention, the president of the union's International office in
Washington D.C. moved to disqualify Kupau. A Federal Judge finally ordered
his installation over the objections of the mainland officers. The
International's role in this dispute would, of course, leave a deep breach
between Walter Kupau and the mainland officials.
The Turbulent Year: 1977
Easily the most confusing and turbulent year in the history of the
Hawaiian construction trades, 1977 featured the longest industry strike
ever. The ironworkers struck for almost five months, effectively shutting
down all major construction projects. Without the ironworkers "re bar"
work, there is no concrete construction. Although workers continued for a
time, using the "free" gate imposed by the N.L.R.B., this soon came to an
end without the reinforcing bars in place. Whenever iron moved onto a
site, the ironworkers promptly picketed the entire site. Despite the
construction slump then affecting Hawaii, the Ironworkers, 850 strong,
were militant. They rejected two successive contract proposals.
In October, the Carpenters quietly reached a three year agreement which
provided raises of sixty five, seventy and seventy five cents in
successive years. Just prior to this agreement, Stanley Yanagi passed away
on August 7, 1977. He was succeeded by Masayuki Yamamoto, who would serve
until the next scheduled election in May 1978.
Perhaps reflecting the turbulence and uncertainty affecting labor
negotiations in that year, the rank and file rejected the $2.10 package in
October, 1977.127 A new agreement
was subsequently presented which gave a wage package of $2.40 per hour,
including $1.00 per hour for vacation pay.
The three year agreement raised the wage package from $13.47 to $15.87
by 1980. A tenth paid holiday was added. The industry added a new feature.
Two cents per hour was established for "Industrial Improvement." This fund
was ear marked for education, market development, safety, pollution
control, public relations and research in the industry.128 The contract also carried a provision
that there would be no restrictions imposed on the use of tools or
equipment and "no rules, customs, or practices", which would limit
production or increase work time or the number of employees.129
Clearly, the gains in the two decades since the first industry wide
contract had come at the cost of fully admitting new technology and new
materials. The respectable wages and benefits were accompanied by an
enormous increase in worker productivity.130 As it had in sugar, pineapple, and
longshore industries, construction work had become highly mechanized. Many
journeymen carpenters now had little opportunity to use the traditional
kit of wood working tools. In 1953, the contract with the military
contractors contained a list of the tools each carpenter was required to
bring to the job. The list was made of thirty hand tools. These tools,
with the possible exception of the "yankee drill", the hack saw, and the
tin snips, could have been in any carpenter's tool box of one hundred
years ago. They were the basic wood working tools.
Technical advances in building techniques were far reaching in this
decade. New tools and new materials required new training. In 1978, the
Local was offering courses to journeymen in the use of metal studs and
beams. A carpenter would need about forty hours of welding training to
qualify to use these beams in construction. By May, 1979, one large
contractor was building the Waipio Gentry tract using metal beams instead
of wood studs. As the Newsletter editor remarked, "As a matter of fact,
there isn't any wood in the project except for cabinets and doors and some
trim."131
Beverly Allen Local 745's first
woman Journeyman, Hawaii Carpenter, May 25, 1979
|
 |
Another important change in the union came with the admission of the
first group of women to the apprenticeship program. In April of 1979
Beverly Allen became the first woman "journeyman" admitted to the
local.132 Women had been members of
the local since the war years. Elsie Chong, for instance, was the first
woman to retire from the local in 1975, and she had joined the union in an
organizing drive dating back to 1941. Though not a journeyman carpenter
she came in as a "Sash and door" worker and remained with the union's
bargaining unit even as she moved on to the company's book keeping.133 Similarly in the late sixties the
local accepted eight women shop helpers hired by Commercial Consultants
and Constructors, Inc. which had the contract to make office furniture for
the new state capitol. Hired without the long apprenticeship training
required of journeymen carpenters were Mary Molina, Mabel Kong, Lillian
Takaesu, Karen Koga, Marjorie Perreira, Pahukoa Morse, Shirley Torres,
Patsy Zukemura, and Eleanor Reizer.134
Despite the internal confusion in Local 745, the contenders kept their
eye on the main issue: improving the wages, hours, and working conditions
of the members. Tired of hearing the complaints about the high cost of
union labor, the leadership began a campaign against shoddy contracting.
Recognizing that the craftsman does not select the building materials and
does not participate in the drafting of plans, the local's public campaign
drew attention to shoddy contracting. Kona, on the island of Hawaii, was
singled out as an example of poor quality. Non union contractors, paying
only half the union scale, were selling their "jerry built" structures for
high prices.135
NOTES:
- HEC/GCA Contract Files, MF #25.
- Thomas K. Hitch, Economic Indicators (Bank of Hawaii, April 1962).
- Moore Drydock, 92 N.L.R.B. 541, 19.
- Fanning, Speech, 4; HEC/GCA Contract Files, June 12, 1962, MF #25.
- HEC, Memo, April 12, 1962, HEC/GCA Contract Files, MF #25.
- Honolulu Advertiser, July 5, 1962.
- HEC, Memo, June 29, 1962, HEC/GCA Contract Files, MF #25.
- Reckman, "The Carpenter," 87.
- HEC, Memo, June 6, 1962, HEC/GCA Contract Files, MF #25.
- Reckman, "The Carpenter," 96.
- Hawaii Employers Council, "Wage Summary: Construction Industry, 1947
1961" (Honolulu: April 1962`): Table 1.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 7, 1963.
- Ibid.
- HEC/GCA, Negotiations, 1963 contract, MF #25.
- Walters Eli, "Report on Medical Coverage," HEC/GCA Contract Files,
July 1, 1963, MF #25.
- Honolulu Advertiser, August 9, 1963.
- Hawaii Times, July 25, 1963.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 20, 1963.
- Ibid., August 31, 1963.
- Ibid., September 20, 1963.
- HEC/GCA Contract Files, 1945 1967, MF #25.
- Shigeura correspondence, November 1, 1967; 745 Reporter,
October 1967.
- Honolulu Advertiser, December 16, l969.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 5, 1967.
- 745 Reporter, Ju1y 17, 1967.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 23, 1967.
- Ibid., September 5, 1967.
- Ibid., September 7, 1963.
- 745 Reporter, October 1967.
- Honolulu Star-Bu1letin, September 18, 1967.
- 745 Reporter, January 1968.
- Hawaii Carpenter, June 16, 1969.
- 745 Reporter, October 1967.
- Interview, Walter Kupau, August 23, 1981; 745 Reporter,
February 1968.
- Hawaii Carpenter, February 23, l973.
- 745 Reporter, January 1968.
- Ibid., February 1968.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 19, 1968; Interview, Carl
Levey, August 26, 1981.
- Interview, Carl Levey, August 26, 1981.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 6, 1969.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 7, 1969; ; see also
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, March 20, 1970 and Honolulu
Advertiser, March 25, 1970.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 7, August 23, 1969;
Honolulu Advertiser, March 3, 1970; Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, March 30, 31, 1970.
- Honolulu Advertiser, May 28, 1971.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 12, 1971.
- Hawaii Carpenter, July 21, 1977; Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June
28, 1972.
- Hawaii Carpenter, September 22, 1972.
- Ibid., January 22, 1972; March 25, 1972; August 18, 1972.
- Ibid., June 22, 1973.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 16, 1975.
- Ibid., March 17, 1975.
- Ibid., June 24, 1975.
- "Construction Protest Ties Traffic Up," Honolulu
Star-Bulletin, December 3, l976.
- Russ Lynch, "It's a Rough Road for Young Leader of Labor Group,"
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, December 13, 1969.
- Victor Lipman, "Interview with Walter Kupau," Honolulu
Magazine February 1985: 33.
- Honolulu Advertiser, February 23, 1973.
- Lynch
- Honolulu Advertiser, October 8, 1982.
- Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Bulletin, May
18, 1977.
- Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 31, 1977.
- HEC/GCA Contract Files, Contracts 1977 1980, MF #25.
- 1977 Contract, p. 15.
- Reckman, "The Carpenter," 90 92.
- Hawaii Carpenter, February 24, 1978.
- Ibid., January 20, 1976. May 26, 1979.
- Ibid., 1975
- Ibid., February 1969; Hawaii State AFL-CIO News,
February 1969.
- Hawaii Carpenter, February 19, 1980.
Part VII: New Foes and New Problems: The
1980s
As the Local emerged into the 1980s showing great strength and gains,
both as a union and as a community force, new attacks confronted the
union.136
Walter Kupau had already earned a reputation as a colorful, but
aggressive union activist, unafraid to speak up for labor, or to express
his own opinions in a local style of oratory that, in the 60s, the press
originally found refreshing and entertaining if not sympathetic copy. But
had at the same time had made for him a long list of powerful adversaries.
In February of 1980 Kupau led the local back into active membership in
the Hawaii State AFL-CIO. Since 1969, Walter Kupau had been the President
of the state federation of AFL-CIO affiliates. A local's membership in the
state federation does not automatically follow its international
affiliation with the AFL-CIO. State federations operate independently and
member locals must pay a separate per-capita dues to belong. When Kupau
challenged Stanley Yanagi for the leadership of the local in 1975, Yanagi
stopped paying per-capitas to the federation in protest and kept the local
out until Kupau was able to secure enough support to bring it back into
the fold five years later.137
Kupau's avowed goal in both the 1975 and 1978 union elections was to
double the union's membership and increase unionization of the state's
building contractors. In 1980 his leadership was put to the test. In a not
uncommon scenario, the employers association was preparing to test the
mettle of new leader in the up-coming negotiations for the local's master
agreement.138
In the summer of 1979, for instance, the W.R. Hamilton Construction
Company of Kailua-Kona on the Big Island (the island of Hawai`i) was
trying to build a 76-unit condominium at Waikoloa. To add insult to
injury, Hamilton had actually applied for and received a $916,000 loan
partially financing the project from the Carpenters Union's own pension
fund.139
Local 745's Kona Business Agent,
Taka Fujitani (left) speaking to W.R. Hamilton, General Contractor
of the Paniolo Club Condominium project at Waikoloa, Hawaii
Carpenter, Setember 21, 1979
|
Local 745's Kona Business Agent, Taka Fujitani set up an Area Standards
picket line on the project on August 13, protesting the fact that Hamilton
was paying substandard wages. The project was completely shut down. On
August 22, Mr. Hamilton called Walter Kupau and indicated his interest in
signing a union contract.
The 1980 Contract
Negotiations for the 1980 contract took a new turn. Preparation began
early in the year. The membership was bluntly told: "Each member has the
responsibility of making sure that he will be able to stand the economic
pressure of going without a paycheck." 140 Strike strategy committees were set
up to advise unit members and to assist them in preparing themselves for a
strike, if that should be necessary. At the same time, members were asked
to express themselves on the important issues to be negotiated in the
contract.
In the midst of these preparations, the union received news that Hawaii
Employers Council alone would conduct the negotiations for the General
Contractors Association. In prior negotiations, the H.E.C. had always
acted only in an advisory capacity, albeit a very important advisory
capacity.141 The union countered this move by pointing out that it was not
necessary for the members of the G.C.A. and the Home Builders Association
to surrender their organizational rights. They could retain their
membership in their trade associations despite any possible disagreement
with H.E.C. tactics.
A strike vote by the units returned a ninety two percent margin in
favor of calling a strike should negotiations fail. A strike workshop was
established to prepare shop stewards to carry out the Local's strategy.
Community Service Committees were set up to deal with member problems of
unemployment compensation, food stamps, and problems of welfare
assistance. All of these steps were designed to convince the employers
that any strike would be solid and as long lasting as required. The Local
was determined to bring the membership to as high a pitch of efficiency as
they could manage.
When negotiations broke down on September 2, a policy of shutting down
the major projects began. Targeting the larger contractors and projects
was meant to put pressure for an early settlement. These steps of union
solidarity and a successful shutdown of the major projects convinced the
employers to reach a settlement. They came back to the table on September
19 and reached a settlement that same day.
The settlement was an outstanding victory for the Local. A wage gain of
forty seven percent over four years was only part of the victory. By the
end of the contract in 1984, the journeyman pay rate would be $17.40 per
hour. This wage gain brought the carpenters up to the level of the highest
paid craft unions, the Operating Engineers and the Electricians, a long
sought goal. Considering that this was the first strike for the Local
since 1967, it was an impressive showing.
An important development was the requirement that any discharged member
be given the reasons for the discharge in writing within twenty four
hours. Added to the "just cause only" dismissal clause, carpenters now had
a reasonable protection against arbitrary dismissal.142 The union also won
the point of having each contractor sign the contract individually, to
prevent H.E.C. domination.
At the same time, the strike drove a bitter wedge between the
Carpenters and some of the more conservative unions in the Building Trades
Council that resulted in three of the major unions crossing the
Carpenters' picket lines during the latter half of the strike.143 The problem
of other crafts doing the work of carpenters was reduced somewhat when the
Local absorbed the Lathers Union, Local 491 L. As Unit 12, the Lathers
were added to the Drywall Unit, the Factory Unit, and the more traditional
sectors of the trade. In December, 1980, after the merger, the Lathers
concluded their best ever contract. The Drywall agreement, negotiated
earlier that month was also a significant step forward, including
significant improvement in the contract language and a hefty forty eight
percent pay increase over four years.144
For the first time in several elections, Local 745's officers carried
off their 1981 campaigns in a spirited, but union oriented manner. Four
candidates vied for the post of Financial Secretary: Stanley Ito, Masayuki
Yamamoto, George Mochizuki and Walter Kupau. For the first time in many
years, there were no challenges to the validity of the rank and file
decision. The new slate of officers, headed by Walter Kupau, was installed
within one week of the voting.
As a mark of maturity, the Local was the subject of a two part
television documentary on the Public Broadcasting Channel 11 program, Rice
and Roses. Entitled "The Carpenters Union in Action", it was an in depth
probe of the workings of the union and the day to day experiences of the
journeyman carpenter. This, too, was "the mark of a good union."145
In 1981 the mill workers were faced with a serious strike. The fifteen
companies refused to pay the wage increases negotiated for the last
contract. Management insisted that the contract called for percentage
increases in only certain areas and not across the board. This resulted in
a six week strike, with the issue submitted to arbitration. Through the
efforts of Federal mediator Gayle Wineriter, an agreement was reached
which provided an across the board increase of $1.25 while a decision was
reached as to whether to use the percentage formula of management.146
These difficulties were a prelude to a downturn in the construction
industry. Pension increases due in 1982 raised the issue of the number of
pensioners and the extent of the unfunded vested liability. Pensioners who
retired before November 1, 1981 received a 20% increase in their pension.
Future pensioners would receive a maximum of $900 per month. Management
rejected no less than seven proposals put forward by the union, finally
agreeing to accept the best proposal if the union would assist in
eliminating the unfunded vested liability over a period of ten years. The
union agreed to raise the pension contribution 5 cents in 1983 84 to help
pay for the increases.147
In April, 1982, the Union voted to increase dues. The rate was set at
2.2 times the hourly journeyman rate, plus the International per capita.
This meant $33.50 per month, instead of 32.00. Apprentice dues were raised
from $24.00 to $25.00. Similar increases were levied on millworkers,
retired, and out of trade members.
The construction industry was hard hit by the Reagan administration
policy of high interest rates as a means of curbing inflation. The
unemployment effect was especially severe in the construction field. With
a large number of members unemployed, the union began to consider the
problem of a dues reduction. Bound by International rules on delinquency,
the Executive Board agreed to raise the issue at the Bi annual meeting.
The concept of lesser dues for unemployed or a working dues was a
possibility. The Health and Welfare Trust Fund removed some of the pain of
the dues increase with the announcement of a major new benefit for members
a far reaching dental plan, offering full dental service for a flat fee of
$2.00 per visit.
The tight money problems of the economy were reflected in increasing
pressure from employers for wage concessions. As contracts were opened in
the construction industry, management was demanding give backs and "work
recovery programs". This term was used to mean lower wage rates and
reductions in fringe benefits on the smaller building contracts.
In May 1982, Walter Kupau was elected president of the AFL CIO Building
and Construction Trades Council. Kupau was also President of the State
Federation of Labor. He urged an expansion of service and training
programs, along with a more vigorous organizing effort. Labor had allowed
non union companies to go unchallenged. Organizing efforts had declined
markedly in the decade. In 1975, Hawaii unions filed 184 certification
petitions. In 1982, only 53 petitions were filed. Of the resulting 41
elections, unions won only nine. All were small units, the largest being
only 37 employees. These numbers reflected the shift in the economy to
service sector activities and white collar work.148
The year 1983 saw a sharp increase in the demands for "work recovery
programs" in the construction industry. Three of the four basic
construction unions had agreed to such demands: laborers, operating
engineers, and the masons. These did not include wage cuts as such, but
focussed on work categories, starting times, overtime. The building
industry journal said, "Work recovery programs initiated in this year's
[1983] contracts, in general, allow certain small sized private
construction jobs to be performed by union workers at less than union pay
scales."149
These conditions were reflected in the fall in membership numbers. In
1972, Local 745 had 7,000 members. In 1983, the number had dropped to
5,600. The recorded work hours for the four basic construction unions
dropped from 17.8 million hours in 1980 to 10.5 million in 1982, a
decrease of over 40%. Against these doleful figures, it is important to
remember the progress of the Union. When Stanley Yanagi negotiated the Mid
Pacific contract in 1953 with the first modified union shop and union
security clause, the union had only 200 members. Master agreements were
not reached until the end of the 1950s. In 1960, union carpenters had
reached a wage level of $3.70 per hour and the union's first medical plan.150
Accompanying these significant wage and benefit gains, however, were
equally significant technological changes in construction techniques.
These could have spelled disaster for the carpenters had the Union not
moved aggressively to protect the building tradesman. The Union met this
challenge with aggressive organizing, bringing in drywall workers, ceiling
and asbestos and floor workers. This helped to reduce the old tactic of
playing one group of workers against another.
A New Threat
The Reagan recession of 1981 82 reached Hawai'i with a vengeance in
1983. Unions were giving large concessions, as for example, the I.L.W.U.
in sugar and pineapple. The Operating Engineers had 30% unemployment among
its members. Worse, by June 1983, about one fourth of all construction in
Hawaii was non union. The union smashing which began with the Air Traffic
Controllers quickly spread to other fields, encouraged by the National
Labor Relations Board and the poor economic conditions.
The union baiting soon came to Local 745. Trying to meet the rise of
non union construction with more vigorous organizing, the Local fell
victim to a legal trap in June 1981 when a contractor filed unfair labor
practices charges against the union.
The National Labor Relations Act, with its Taft Hartley amendments,
poses many obstacles to organizing, placing legal barriers in the way of
normal or traditional organizing methods. These barriers include rules for
organizing which do not recognize the employment characteristics of the
construction industry. For many years after the formation of the N.L.R.B.,
they held off formulating rules for the construction industry. The law
does not permit picketing for purely organizing purposes. It does permit
so called "informational picketing" in which the union may proclaim
through its pickets that this particular job is non union, paying
substandard wages, or engaging in other non union activities.151 The union
obviously wants the particular job to become union. The informational
picketing is designed to use public pressure and exposure to bring the
contractor around.
The Local picketed a non union site on Maui. The contractor met with
the two organizers and secretly taped conversations. It was later charged
that the organizers threatened to torch the non union constructions. This
charge, although repeatedly displayed by the press, was ultimately dropped
because the tapes contained no such threats. The two organizers instead
were charged in 1983 with perjury: they lied when they said that they were
not conducting an organizational picket line. Their conviction turned on
strange interpretations of the local dialect, pidgin. The courts refused
to permit linguists to testify for the defense. The organizers were
convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment.
The attack then moved to the head of the union, Walter Kupau. He was
charged with seven counts of perjury and again secretly taped phone
conversations were used in evidence. None showed any of the charges of
terroristic threatening that was featured prominently in the Honolulu
Advertiser, in headline after headline. A dispute involving a construction
foreman at Mililani Town resulted in felony charges being filed against
Kupau. His only role was as the driver of the van which took the
organizers to the site. The charges were dropped in court but continued to
be used in the press. Kupau was convicted on six counts of perjury and
sentenced to two years in prison.
Both trials revealed the deep bias of the metropolitan press against
labor. Anything the defendants did to prove their innocence was reported
in the Advertiser as demonstrating their guilt. One example will suffice.
A Freedom of Information Act request was portrayed as an evidence of guilt
since, the newspaper alleged, only criminals asked for such materials.
This guilt by association characterized the whole episode.
Clearly designed to smash the Local, the effort extended to attempts to
remove Kupau from his post as President of the State Federation of Labor.
Forced out of that position by the AFL CIO, the Local resisted efforts of
the I.B.C.J. executives to force Kupau to resigned as Financial Secretary.
William Puette's study concluded:
From the beginning, Kupau had insisted that this case was
engineered by the federal government in order to stop the spread of
union organizing in Hawaii's construction industry. Without question,
Walter Kupau's administration of the Carpenters' local had distinguished
itself in the labor community as the most active and aggressive union
organizers. Yet at no time did the any of the Hawai'i press ever give
serious consideration to Kupau's charges.152
Despite the intense
flurry of national publicity by the National Right To Work Committee, the
assault on the union resulted in little more than inflicting prison
sentences of two organizers and Walter Kupau. The rank and file members
rallied around their union and President Samson Mamizuka. Kupau returned
from six months imprisonment in December 1986 to resume the leadership of
Local 745. He was re elected to a fourth term without opposition in the
June 1987 election, along with Samson Mamizuka as President.
The 1987 contract negotiations ran up to the October 1 strike deadline
authorized by the members. The union proposed changes to preserve work
jurisdiction, job security and the ability to service members more
effectively. The contractors ignored these issues, focussing on "cost"
items, once again asserting that the major factor in construction costs
was union wages and benefits, rather than land, material, and financial
costs. The settlement reached on September 30 called for five year
contract that would raise wages from $19.05 to $21.25 in 1991. Including
fringe benefits, the wages settlement would amount to $32.50 per hour in
September, 1991. An important gain was the increase in tool reimbursement
to $500, reflecting the technological changes in the field.
Far reaching changes were added to the Union's programs in 1988 89. A
dental program for families, extended life insurance, an added weekly
benefit of $270 for non industrial disabilities, a dollar per hour
contributed to a personal Vacation Trust Fund which could add up to $2,000
per year to the Fund which is distributed every December. Perhaps the most
startling change was in the pension plan. A member working 1,600 hours per
year from age 20 to 65 could have a pension fund of $1,300,000 (at 1989
interest rates) on retirement. The Union also instituted a legal services
plan, a funeral service plan for members, as well as active representation
for workers' compensation, Hawaii's Temporary Disabiity Insurance, and
unemployment claims.
Most significantly, the local tore down a time-honored craft union
tradition of charging substantial initiation fees to keep all but the
fully committed from entering the union ranks. High initiation fees on the
one hand have been used as barriers to protect a stable but limited pool
of work from being flooded over time, but in the 1980s more and more work
throughout the United States was going non-union. In such a time, high
initiation fees not only prevent union growth, they may hasten the union
decline and encourage the growth of non-union shops. In October 1988 Local
745, in an unprecedented move, reduced its initiation fee from $250 to
$50. And In 1991 it was again reduced to just $15, the lowest of the
skilled trades in Hawai'i.
Teaming For Tomorrow
Growing out of the informational picketing case, the union determined
to deal directly with the negative images propagated by the media. A Union
Public Image Program was launched in 1989 to present the Local in a more
positive light to the community. Lectures, news features, slide shows and
a media campaign were launched and have done much to improve not just the
public image of the Carpenters union but the labor movement in general.153
One of Kupau's most inspired choices was his decision back in August of
1972 to hire Ron Taketa, a graduate of the University of Hawaii's Ethnic
Studies Program. At first hired to be the union's full-time Workers'
Compensation aide, back when Kupau was Stanley Yanagi's Administrative
Assistant, Taketa soon revealed a flare for a wide variety of
administrative details. Openly supportive of Kupau's bid for election,
Taketa was fired in 1975 at which point he picked up invaluable experience
in grievance handling and contract administration working with the United
Public Workers union under Henry Epstein.154 When he was rehired by Walter
Kupau in 1978, he became an integral part of an administration which
developed programs centering on effective representation, membership
services, and a progressive program of education for job stewards and
union field agents to create a new model of construction industry
organizing.
Though not himself a rank-in-file carpenter, Ron Taketa's work as the
Local's Community Services and Education Director over the years have
proven to be of inestimable value.
Kupau also expanded the union's apprentice program through Hawaii's
community college system on each island. About 1,000 students throughout
the state are enrolled in this program. Journeyman improvement courses and
foreman training were made available throughout the year by the
Apprenticeship and Training Office. An important aspect of the apprentice
program was the special effort to reach out to women and minorities. Two
Union apprentices spoke at winter career conferences. They conducted high
school girls to job sites and walked them around to acquaint them with the
job of the carpenter. This "Teaming for Tomorrow" campaign originated in a
1987 community study which identified the under employment of women in
Hawaii as an area in need of change.156
 |
Ron Taketa Local 745 Education
and Community Services
Director |
Another lesson learned from the trials of 1983 was the need for better
trained organizers. Organizing was made the highest priority. "Instead of
organizing with baseball bats, we organize with pencils now. We used to go
one on one but now we're using a business approach." For years, it has
been the custom in the building trades unions that the Business Agents, as
key, full-time union staff, were both contact administrators and union
organizers. Walter Kupau decided to separate the responsibilities of union
organizers from field agents and cultivated a completely new cadre of
trained organizers who could focus all their energies and attention to
organizing.
An evidence of the new approach to organizing was seen in the
informational picketing of such sites as the remodelling of the Sheraton
Waikiki and Moana Surfrider hotels where non union contractors were used.
The solidarity of the community with Local 745 was evident in the
cancellations of several conventions scheduled for these hotels. The hotel
firm came up with the unique argument that to use only union contractors
would violate federal antitrust laws.157
The construction boom of 1988 produced the claim that were not enough
workers in Hawai'i. Through a vigorous advertising campaign, the Union was
able to recruit non union carpenters and increase the apprenticeship
program to insure a steady stream of qualified workers. The Union resisted
efforts to recruit mainland workers. In November 1990, the union had 300
journeymen carpenters "on the bench" in Honolulu (500 statewide) and about
600 apprentices.158
APPENDIX B
First Master Building Trades Agreement 1960
A G R E E M E N T
WHEREAS, it is desirous that the employees of
the employers signatory hereto under and subject to this agreement be
represented on a joint basis with the Unions signatory hereto; and
WHEREAS,the Unions signatory hereto have
presented satisfactory proof of representation of employees of the
employers signatory hereto and within the construction industry; and
WHEREAS, it is desirous to have uniform
collective bargaining agreements covering the employees of the employers
signatory hereto and negotiated on an Association basis as an Association
agreement of those employers signatory hereto, and equally binding upon
the employers initially signatory hereto and employers who may hereafter
during the term hereof execute said agreement as a member of the labor
association of employers party hereto; and, therefore, under the
agreement, whenever the word "Contractor" is used, it shall signify each
employer member of said Association whose employees are covered hereby,
and whenever the word "Union" is used, it shall signify each Union
signatory hereto with employees covered by this agreement within the
respective trade or craft of said Unions signatory hereto;
NOW, THEREFORE, it is agreed as follows:
Section 1
DURATION This
agreement shall be binding upon the respective parties effective September
1, 1960, to and including September 1, 1963, and shall be considered as
renewed from year to year thereafter unless either party hereto shall give
written notice to the other of its desire to modify, amend, or terminate
the same. Any such notice must be given by the party desiring to modify,
amend, or terminate the agreement, at least 120 days prior to the
expiration date, but not more than 150 days prior to the expiration date.
In the event such notice is given, and only in such event, negotiations
for a new agreement shall commence within ten days after the date on which
such notice is received by the other party hereto. If such notice shall
not be given, the agreement shall be deemed to be renewed for the
succeeding year.
Section 2
COVERAGE The
employees covered by this agreement are those employees of the Contractor
employed in the State of Hawaii in the classifications set forth in the
job classification and wage schedule which is attached hereto and marked
EXHIBIT "A" except for office clerical employees, confidential employees,
professional employees, watchmen and supervisors as defined in the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended.
Section 3
UNION RECOGNITION
The Contractor shall recognize the Union as the sole collective bargaining
representative for all employees covered by this agreement.
Section 4
UNION SECURITY (1)
Each present regular employee covered by this agreement who is a member of
the Union on the effective date of this agreement shall continue to remain
a member of the Union as a condition of employment during the term of this
agreement.
(2) Each present employee who is not a member
of the Union on the effective date of this agreement but who may become a
member of the Union any time after the effective date of this agreement
shall thereafter continue to remain a member of the union as a condition
of employment during the term of this agreement.
(3) Each new employee who is not a member of
the Union at the time of employment shall become a member of the Union not
later than the eighth day of his employment and shall thereafter continue
to remain a member of the Union as a condition of employment during the
term of this agreement. In no event, however, shall any such new employee
be required, as a condition of employment, to become a member of the Union
sooner than eight days after the date of his employment.
(4) Any present regular employee who, on the
effective date of this agreement, is not a member of the Union, shall not
be required to become a member of the Union as a condition of continued
employment. Any such employee, however, who, during the term of this
agreement, joins the Union must thereafter maintain his membership in the
same manner as provided for regular employees who are members of the Union
on the effective date of this agreement.
Section 5
APPRENTICESHIP The
parties hereto agree to establish a Joint Apprenticeship Committee
composed of equal representation from the Employer and Union to program
and operate a system of apprentice training in conformance with State and
Federal laws. Such committee shall have the authority to act for and on
behalf of the Employer and the Union.
Section 6
ACCESS TO COMPANY
PREMISES The Business Representatives of
the Union shall have access to the Contractor's premises and job projects
for the purposes of investigating grievances that have arisen and
ascertaining whether or not this agreement is being observed, by applying
for permission through the office. Permission to enter shall be exercised
reasonably and shall not interfere with the conduct of the Contractor's
operations or cause employees to neglect their work.
A Shop Steward may be selected by the Union
and shall be given reasonable time during regular working hours to contact
employees affected by this agreement.
Section 7
DISCHARGE Employees
shall be subject to discharge for insubordination, dishonesty,
drunkenness, incompetence, violation of the terms of this agreement,
failure to perform work as required or failure to observe safety rules and
regulations of the Contractor's policies, which shall be conspicuously
posted.
A probationary period of thirty days shall be
established for all new employees and such new employees may be summarily
discharged.
Any discharged employee, upon request, shall
be furnished the reason for his discharge in writing.
Section 8
NO STRIKE OR LOCKOUT
The parties hereto agree that during the term of this agreement, any past,
existing or future custom or practice of the Contractor or the Union to
the contrary notwithstanding, there shall be no lockout by the Contractor,
nor any strike, sitdown, refusal to work, stoppage of work, slowdown,
retardation of production or picketing of the Contractor on the part of
the Union or its representatives or on the part of any employee covered by
the terms of this agreement.
In the event of a threat of a picket line by
any other union not a party to this agreement, the Unions party hereto and
the Association agree that the Joint Committee provided for in Exhibit "B"
attached hereto, shall immediately proceed to investigate the matter in an
effort to assure continuance of work. There shall be no stoppage of work
on the part of employees covered hereby unless (1) after investigation by
the Joint Committee of Association and Union members pursuant to Exhibit
"B", such threatened picket line is determined to be a legitimate picket
line, and the Joint Committee is unable to effect any solution with
respect thereto; and (2) any such threatened picket line established has
further been authorized by the Honolulu Building and Construction Trades
Council.
Section 9
TEMPORARY TRANSFER
When any employee is required to work temporarily on a job of a higher
classification, he shall receive the pay of the higher classification.
When an employee is required to work
temporarily on a job of a lower classification, he shall receive the pay
of his regular wage classification unless such change is made permanent.
A transfer made for the convenience of an
employee shall not be deemed a temporary transfer, irrespective of the
duration of the transfer.
Section 10
WAGES Attached
hereto marked Exhibit "A" and made a part of this agreement is a wage
schedule setting forth the wage rates that shall be effective for the term
of this agreement.
Section 11
AUTHORIZED
DEDUCTIONS The Contractor agrees to
deduct from the wages of such of its employees as shall so request in
writing all dues hereafter becoming due from such employees to the Union,
and initiation fees, and to transmit the money so deducted to the Union as
hereafter provided. Any employee desiring to have his Union dues deducted
shall sign a proper dues assignment form, which is attached hereto and
made a part hereof as Exhibit "C", requesting such deduction from his pay
and such request for deduction will if voluntarily made, upon filing with
the Contractor, be honored in accordance with its terms. Such deductions
shall be made not oftener than once a month.
In case any employee does not have the total
amount of any deduction, or more, due him on any payroll from which
deductions are made in respect to other such employees, the deduction
shall be made out of the next succeeding payroll upon which such employee
has the total amount, or more, due. It is agreed that authorized
deductions for government taxes and for the purpose of paying indebtedness
to the Contractor, garnishments and deduction required by law to be made
by the Contractor shall have priority over deductions for Union dues.
The total amount of any deduction shall be
promptly transmitted by the Contractor to the Union by check drawn to the
order of the Union. Upon the issue of such check and the transmission of
same to said Union, all responsibility on the part of the Contractor shall
cease with respect to any amount so deducted. The Contractor shall not be
bound in any manner to see to the application of the proceeds of any such
check, nor to investigate the authority of any designated officer of said
Union to sign any request, to accept any such check, or to collect the
same. The Union hereby undertakes to indemnify and hold blameless the
Contractor from any claim that may be made upon it for or on account of
any such deduction from the wages of any employee.
Section 12
MODIFICATION OF
AGREEMENT This agreement shall not be
modified except by a written document signed by the parties hereto.
Section 13
MINIMUM TIME
Employees or qualified applicants ordered to report for work at job site
for whom no employment is provided shall be entitled to two (2) hours' pay
unless prevented from working for reason beyond the control of the
Employer (including such factors as inclement weather, or breakdown
causing discontinuance) during which time workmen are not required or
requested to remain on the job by the Employer.
Section 14
TOOLS The
individual Contractor shall provide on each job site a reasonably secure
place where his employees may keep their tools. If an individual
employee's tool kit of working tools is lost by reason of fire or theft
involving forcible entry while in the individual Contractor's care, the
individual Contractor shall reimburse the employee for such loss up to a
maximum of One Hundred Twenty-Five Dollars ($125.00).
Section 15
TRANSPORTATION For
job projects for which public utility transportation is not conveniently
available, the Employer will provide, as a convenience to employees,
suitable transportation which employees may accept or refuse at designated
pick-up spots in sufficient time to permit transportation to arrive at the
site in time for the employees to start work at the normal starting time.
Section 16
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
When any employee covered by this agreement believes, or when the Union
believes that the Contractor has violated the express terms and conditions
thereof and that by reason of such violation his or its rights arising out
of this agreement have been affected adversely, he or it, as the case may
be, shall be required to follow the procedure hereinafter set forth in
presenting the grievance and having the grievance investigated and the
merits thereof determined. Jurisdictional disputes shall be processed in
accordance with the provisions of Section 18. "JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES."
First: The grievance shall be presented in the
first instance to the Foreman within five days of the alleged breach of
the express terms and conditions of this agreement. Failure to so present
such grievance shall be deemed a waiver of remedy under this provision.
Due diligence shall be exercised by both parties in adjusting the
grievance to the mutual satisfaction of the complainant and the
Contractor, and such adjustment shall be made within a reasonable period
of time.
Second: If such Foreman does not adjust the
grievance to the complainant's satisfaction within a reasonable time, the
complainant or a representative of the Union shall then present the
grievance to the Manager.
Third: If the Manager does not adjust the
grievance to the complainant's satisfaction within a reasonable time, the
complainant or a representative of the Union shall then present the
grievance as previously set forth in writing to the Board of Arbitration
as hereinafter provided.
Board of Arbitration: A Board of Arbitration
shall be appointed consisting of three persons: One representative shall
be designated by the Contractor and one representative shall be designated
by the Union. The third member of said Board shall be appointed jointly by
the two chosen representatives of the parties hereto. All decisions of the
Board of Arbitration shall be by majority vote and shall be limited
expressly to the terms and provisions of this agreement, and in no event
may the terms of this agreement be altered, amended, or modified by the
Board of Arbitration. All decisions of the Board of Arbitration shall be
final and binding upon the parties hereto. All fees and expenses of the
third member of the Board of Arbitration shall be borne equally by the
Union and the Contractor. Each party hereto shall bear the expenses of the
presentation of its own case, as well as the fee and expenses for the
representative designated as a member of the Board of Arbitration. The
complainant in every hearing before the Board of Arbitration shall have
the burden of proving his or its case by a preponderance of the competent
evidence.
Section 17
HOURS AND OVERTIME
All work performed
(1) in excess of eight (8) hours in any
one day;
(2) in excess of forty (40) hours in any one
week; and
(3) on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays as
specified in Section 20
shall constitute overtime.
Where shift work is employed, the first shift
shall consist of eight (8) hours (exclusive of lunch periods) with eight
(8) hours pay; the second shift shall consist of seven and one-half (7
1/2) hours (exclusive of lunch periods) with eight (8) hours pay; the
third shift shall consist of seven (7) hours (exclusive of lunch periods)
with eight (8) hours pay.
Overtime shall be paid for at one and one-half
times the employee's regular straight time rate of pay. Whenever two or
more overtime rates are applicable to the same hour or hours worked, there
shall be no pyramiding or adding together of such rates and only the
higher of the applicable rates shall be applied.
Section 18
JURISDICTIONAL
DISPUTES All jurisdictional disputes
shall be settled in accordance with the established procedures of the
National Joint Board for the settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes without
interruption of work or delay to the job.
Section 19
HIRING AND REFERRAL
PROCEDURE (1) In the hiring of employees
covered by this agreement, and provided competency, efficiency, skill and
ability are equal (of which Contractor shall be the sole judge, subject
only to (6) below), the Contractor shall give preference in notification
and consideration to former employees who are available for rehire.
(2) Should the Contractor's requirements not
be filled by former employees, applicants for employment who may be
satisfactory to the Contractor shall be obtained as follows: The
Contractor shall notify such sources of labor as it desires, and at the
same time it notifies any other labor source, it shall also notify the
Union of the qualifications of the man, or men, required.
(3) Whenever possible the notice required by
(2) above shall be given forty-eight (48) hours in advance of the time at
which the Contractor desires the man to report for work.
(4) The Contractor shall give preference in
employment to applicants experienced in work similar to that for which job
openings exist whose experience was gained and who currently reside in the
locality.
(5) The Union shall refer applicants for
employment who appear to meet the qualifications stated by the Contractor
in the order of the amount of experience they evidence in the type of work
for which the job openings exist; provided that such "industry seniority"
determination of preferred referral may, after due notice to the
Contractor, in the future be further defined by posted regulations
governing the operation of the non-discriminatory employment offices
maintained by the Union. Referrals by the Union will be made on a
non-discriminatory basis without regard to Union membership or lack of
membership.
(6) The Contractor shall notify the Union by
telephone or card at the time of employment of the name and date of
employment of a new or recalled employee so that the employment office may
issue the employee a confirmation of the date of commencement of his
employment for presentation to the Contractor, to the end that the
Contractor and the employment office records with respect to the date on
which employment commences will be the same, and possible disputes with
respect to the report pay, union security and other provisions of this
agreement thereby avoided.
(7) The Contractor will not discriminate in
favor of or against any applicant because of his membership or
non-membership, or activities in behalf of or in opposition to, the Union
or any other labor organization.
(8) The Union will conduct the registration
facilities of, and will operate its employment offices without
discrimination, either in favor of or against any person by reason of
membership or non-membership in any union, or by reason of acting on
behalf of or in opposition to any union. The provisions of this paragraph
shall govern over any conflicting provision or requirement of the
constitution, by-laws, working rules or other rules of the Union, and
selection of applicants for employment for referral to the Contractor
shall be on a non-discriminatory basis and shall not be based on, or in
any way affected by, union membership, by-laws, regulations,
constitutional provisions, or any other aspect or obligation of union
membership, policies, or requirements.
(9) Any individual workman aggrieved by the
operation of these hiring procedures, including any posted regulations
subsequently adopted, shall have the right to submit his grievance through
either party hereto to the Board of Arbitration created in Section 16
hereof, provided such submission is made in writing within ten (10) days
after the occurrence of the grievance. Said Board shall have full power to
adjust the grievance and its decision thereon shall be final and binding
upon the individual grievant and all other parties hereto.
(10) The Contractor and the Union shall post
the hiring provisions of this agreement on the bulletin board where
notices to employees and applicants for employment are posted, and the
Union shall supplement the posting of the regulations governing the
operation of its employment offices by posting a copy of the hiring
provisions of this agreement if such regulations are subsequently adopted.
Section 20
HOLIDAYS The
following days shall be considered holidays, and work performed on such
days shall be compensated for at one and one-half the straight-time hourly
rate of pay:
New Year's Day |
Labor Day |
President's Day |
Kamehameha Day |
Memorial Day |
Thanksgiving Day |
Fourth of July |
Christmas Day |
|
In the event any of the above holidays falls on a Sunday, the following
Monday shall be considered the holiday. No work shall be performed on
Labor Day except in case of emergency.
Section 21
MEDICAL PLAN
Attached herewith as Exhibit "D" is the agreement of the parties
pertaining to the installation of a Medial Plan.
Section 22
DOCUMENT CONTAINS ENTIRE
AGREEMENT This document contains the
entire agreement of the parties and neither party has made any
representations to the other which are not contained herein.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto,
through their duly authorized representatives, have executed this
agreement on this 29th day of July, 1960.
GENERAL CONTRACTORS SIGNATORY TO LABOR ASSOCIATION
AGREEMENT: |
HONOLULU BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL By:
/s/ Walters K. Eli
|
SPECIAL SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL
RELA- TIONS COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL CONTRACTORS ASSOCIA-
TION OF HONOLULU, HAWAII |
THE UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS AND JOINER
OF AMERICA, LOCAL 745, AFL-CIO By: /s/ Stanley S. Yanagi
|
By: /s/ Max W. Moody By: /s/ Frank N. Rothwell By: /s/
Harry Y.K. Chock By: /s/ Richard M. Gray By: /s/ Clark J.
Hastert By: /s/ M. Yamaguchi |
THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF OPERATING ENGINEERS, LOCAL
3, AFL-CIO By: /s/ Harold Lewis
|
|
THE CONSTRUCTION AND GENERAL LABORERS' UNION, LOCAL 368, OF
THE INTERNATIONAL HOD CARRIERS, BUILDING AND COMMON
LABORERS' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL-CIO By: /s/ Elmo Samson
|
|
OPERATIVE PLASTERERS' & CEMENT FINISHERS'
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION, Local Union #630 AFL-CIO By: /s/
W.E. Whitcomb |
|
EXHIBIT "D" MEDICAL PLAN I. Medical Plan
- Interim Period - Contract date through June 30, 1961.
- Employer's Contribution
- At least the total cost of each employee's medical plan. (Not
including family plan) for single employees or employees not
desiring to cover family.
- Or, 1/2 of the cost of employee's family plan type
coverage.
- Conditions, Employers.
- Employer shall be solely responsible for administration of
medical plan.
- Employer will be allowed to keep existing medical plans in
effect, i.e., HMSA, insurance companies, etc.
- Employers without present medical plan to immediately institute
and put into effect within 30 days of contract date, Medical Plan
No. 9, HMSA or its equivalent.
- Furnish to Joint Committee (shown under Paragraph B.2.a.) the
necessary medical history cards and other pertinent data required by
1 February 1961.
- Eligibility
- Any employee on employer's rolls as of date of contract is
eligible.
- New hires.
(a) All new employees of the employer who are
presently under a medical plan at the time they are employed shall
be continued with medical coverage pursuant to the plan of the
employer.
(b) All other new employees will be eligible for
coverage following 30 days of employment with the employer.
- Any employee who is in arrears in his payment prior to
employment shall be individually responsible for such
payments.
- Period from July 1, 1961 through June 30, 1963.
- Employer's contribution.
- Entire cost of medical plan including family coverage.
- Conditions.
- Joint Committee to be established with ten (10) members, five
(5) representing Unions, at least one from each craft, and five (5)
representing Management. Committee to have full power to negotiate
for the most favorable plan after receiving information covered
under Paragraph A.2.d.
- Committee to contract for a plan with full family coverage and
with benefits not less than those contained under Plan 9, HMSA, with
major medical coverage.