Hawaiʻi Labor History Timeline

Center for Labor Education & Research
University of Hawai‘i - West O‘ahu

(808) 689-2760 - FAX (808) 689-2761

https://westoahu.hawaii.edu/clear email: clear@hawaii.edu

CLEAR Timeline of
Hawai‘i Labor History

See also: CLEAR Timeline of U.S. Labor History

2000 1990 1980 1970 1960 1950 1940 1930
1920 1910 1900 1890 1880 pre 1870

2018: -Oct. 8 through Nov. 27, 2,700 workers represented by Local 5 at the Marriott/Kyo-ya hotels in Hawaiʻi including the Sheraton Waikiki, Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Westin Moana Surfrider, Sheraton Princess Kaiulani and Sheraton Maui struck for 51 days as part of a national "one job should be enough" campaign waged against Marriott by local unions of UNITE HERE in Boston, Detroit, San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego over wages & other shared issues such as job safety and security, automation and technology.

2017: -May 1, Workers' Day March & Rally in Honolulu: 800 union members with banners from twenty different public and private sector unions and supporting organizations rallied at the Hawaiʻi State Capitol and marched to the Federal Building to protest anti-union labor laws being proposed by Congress and the white house after te November election

2016: -12 December, Puʻunēnē, Maui: the last sugar plantation in Hawaiʻi brought in its final haul of sugar cane, marking the end of a more than century-long time period where sugar mills operated in the islands.
-May, IBEW Local 1260 is placed in trusteeship by the IBEW International to resolve issues of financial mismanagement, resulting in the resignation of Buiness Manager Brian Ahakuelo and election of new leadership.

2013: -January, workers represented by ILWU, Local 142 overwhelmingly approve their first labor contract with the Pacific Beach Hotel after a strike that dragged on for 10 years despite court rulings & NLRB injunctions over the mass firings, intimidation & other Unfair Labor Practices.

2007: -December 21, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142 opens a free store stocked with food to help workers who lost their jobs recently at The Pacific Beach Hotel.
-December 17, Represented by Teamsters Local 996, 116 unionized workers in the meat department strike Times Supermaket over medical benefits.

2006

- July 22, after four years of bitter struggles, picketing, and a boycott, UNITE HERE, Local 5 successfully concludes negotiations on a 4-year contract with Benchmark Hospitality for 340 Local 5 members at Turtle Bay Resort.

- June 24 to October 27 (126 day) strike by Hawai‘i Nurses' Association against Wilcox Hospital ends with ratification of a new contract.

2005

-November 1, a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court accusing Wal-Mart in Hawai‘i of wage tampering.

- October 15, as part of its plan to reorganize its financial obligations, Aloha asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris to let the carrier terminate its employee contracts and pension plans.

- September, an attorney for Turtle Bay, embroiled in a long dispute with UNITE HERE Local 5, writes a letter to the local office of the U.S. Department of Justice accusing itself of "illegal benefits to Local 5 representatives" for its previous practice providing union agents with free parking.

- Between June and September, 4 major national unions disaffiliate from the AFL-CIO to form the new "Change to Win Coalition" [Service Employees International Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, and UNITE HERE], representing about 4 million members, nationally.

- August 19, 22 Northwest Airlines mechanics in Honolulu join the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) national strike over airlines wage cuts and layoffs.... Sept 14 the airline filed backruptcy.

- March 30, Nearly 150 substitute public school teachers marched at the state Capitol yesterday afternoon to rally support for back pay, as well as to encourage state lawmakers to pass two bills that address the substitute pay issue.

2004

- December 14, Unity House Inc., the hybrid labor organization created more than 50 years earlier by Art Rutledge, was seized by Internal Revenue Service, following a restraining order issued by Senior U.S. District Judge Samuel King that froze some $42 million in assets held by the nonprofit organization.

- July 1 to July 4, 60 dispatchers and harbor-based personnel represented by the Inland Boatmen's Union strike Young Brothers Ltd. and Hawaiian Tug & Barge.

-June 29, developer Actus Lend Lease and the Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council sign off on a project labor agreement ("Ohana Stabilization Agreement ") spanning 50 years and covering $5.1 billion in construction and renovation work for military housing in Hawai'i.

-May 3, Five hours after Governor Lingle vetoed an 8 percent wage increase awarded in arbitration, the state senate voted to overide the veto of the raises for the 23,000 members of HGEA affected.

-April 8, University of Hawai‘i faculty represented by UHPA ratify the longest-term (six-year) contract in the history of Hawaii's public sector bargaining. They agree to annual raises for the 3,442 members of the bargaining unit of 1, 3, 2, 5, 9 and 11 percent, in that order, between 2003 and 2009.

-February 6 through April 2, 144 Cement workers represented by Teamster Local 996 strike Ameron for 57 days. They are joined by 60 workers at Hawaiian Cement (from Feb 7 to March 19).

2003

-August 26 through September 28 more than 1,300 O'ahu bus workers represented by Hawaiʻi Teamsters and Allied Workers, Local 996 strike Oahu Transit Services.

- November 26, claiming the hotel was stalling negotiations over the contract covering about 300 workers, which was last renewed in 1999. HERE LOCAL 5 initiates a consumer boycott of Turtle Bay Resort, which was purchased in 2001 by Oaktree Capital Management.

-May 5 through July 17 about 65 Registered Nurses represented by Hawaiʻi Nurses Association Collective Bargaining Organization strike the 162-bed Wahiawa General Hospital for ten weeks.

2002

-December 3, 1400 nurses represented by Hawaiʻi Nurses Assn. strike Queen's Medical Center, Kuakini and St. Francis-Liliha medical centers (three of the Big Five Hawai‘i hospitals).

- November 19, Gary Rodrigues, State Director of United Public Workers Union (AFSCME Local 646) is convicted of 101 counts of mail fraud, money laundering and embezzlement. Two days later AFSCME, UPW's parent national union, suspends him from office and subsequently places UPW in an administrative trusteeship.

- September, ILWU dock workers on the West Coast are locked out by shippers for 11 days in late September and early October following a self-imposed work slowdown, tentatively agreed to a contract in November but not before the Bush administration forced them back to work by invoking the little-used 1947 Taft-Hartley Act

-July, Local 5 hotel workers, at odds over wages, pensions and outsourcing, begin reaching contract agreements in September with the biggest Waikīkī hotels, Sheraton, Hilton and Hyatt, after several days of selective picketing.

2001: -At Moloka‘i General Hospital, five registered nurses represented by Hawaii Nurses Assn. strike from May 12 to June 14, unable to improve wages in their contract.
-April 5, 10,000 Public school teachers represented by HSTA and 3000 University of Hawai‘i faculty represented by UHPA shut down all public education in the State in the nation's first such higher and lower education strike.

2000: -A Labor and Community based coalition called SOS ("Save Our Star-Bulletin") battle the corporate decision to shut down one of the State's two major daily newspapers
-May 1, over 700 Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA members in Hawai‘i join a nation-wide strike against producers of TV and radio commercials that lasts six months and sees local pickets at GM dealerships like Cutter Chevrolet in Honolulu.
-April 19, thousands of private and public sector labor union members rally at the State capitol to protest legislative proposals to cut back public employee rights and benefits in the name of "civil service reform."

1999: -November 24, 150 meatcutters represented by Hawaii Teamsters Local 996 strike 13 Times Markets on O'ahu for four days.
-October 21, workers at Embassy Vacation Resorts on Maui elect HERE Local 5 as the union representative for 270 employees.
-July 30, workers at Straub Clinic & Hospital elect ILWU Local 142 as the union representative for 200 non-professional employees.
-June, 400 of Hawaiʻi postal wokers (NALC & APWU) and supporters march in informational picket around the downtown Honolulu post office as part of a nationwide salary protest

1998: -October 8, more than 100 workers at Young Laundry & Drycleaning represented by Hawaii Teamsters, Local 996 strike over wage and benefit reductions. They are permanently replaced and the union is decertified the following May after the NLRB rules the 100 strike replacements eligible to vote.
-August, 5,000 national delegates from AFSCME attend first major convention hosted in Honolulu at the new Hawai‘i Convention Center. Rev. Jesse Jackson is the keynote speaker.
-March 13, Teachers at Kamehameha Schools in Kapalama vote in NLRB election, 186-36 to certify the Kamehameha Schools Faculty Association as their union representative.

1997: -August 4, Hawai‘i Teamsters local 996 joins the National strike against UPS for 15 days supported locally by all 250 UPS workers state wide.
-July 9th, ninety-eight ILWU Stevedores and clerical workers shut down Young Brothers in a "sickout" protesting the lack of good-faith bargaining.
-April 28th, 400 ILWU Stevedores in Honolulu and at Barbers Point walkout for one day to protest the slow pace of negotiations with Hawaii Metal Recycling.
-April 24 & 25, Inland Boatmen's Union picket Uaukewai Diving, Salvage and Fishing,Inc at Honolulu Pier 21 for its refusal to bargain after the union won a representation election for its 19 workers.
-April, at its convention in Honolulu, the ILWU changed its name from the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen's Union to International Longshore and Warehouse Union to become gender neutral (motion by ILWU maritime division member, Lila Smith)

1996: -September, the Hawai‘i State AFL-CIO clebrates Labor Day at Thomas Square.
-April 22 to July 9, 16 Security Guards at St. Francis Hospital in Honolulu strike to get a first contract between the hospital and their new union, the Hawaii Association of Security Officers, Local 1.

1994: -December, Laborers Union local 368 begins an 18 month boycott of St. Francis Hospital for refusing to accept the results of a September 1st representation election for 149 clerks, custodians, laundry and kitchen workers.
-June 3, workers at Kilgo's hardware store on Sand Island (Oʻahu) represented by HERE Local 5, strike in protest of the company's resistance to recognize and refusal to bargain in good faith.
-April 18-29, twenty thousand clerical & white collar professional employees of the State and its four counties (units 3 and 13 of the State's 13 bargaining units) represented by HGEA/AFSCME Local 152 conduct the first strike in that union's 60 year history.
-April, State Foundation grants are shifted from the Honolulu Symphony Society to three non-profit organizations with whom Musicians Local 677 is able to contract for a reborn 62 member Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.
-Dole Food Co. announces its intention to close North Shore O‘ahu's Waialua Sugar Co.
-January 19, the Hawaii State Teachers Association rally 500 teachers and supporters at Enchanted Lake Elementary School in Kailua to protest the Department's plan to transfer Lena Kanemori out of the school for speaking up to the principal on behalf of her fellow teachers.

1993: -Amfac/JMB Hawaii, Inc. begin a two-year shut down of O‘ahu Sugar Company's Waipahu Sugar Mill.
-September, the Honolulu Symphony Society declares impasse and unilaterally implements wage cuts forcing members of Musicians Local 677 to go on strike for several months.
-Despite the best joint union-company efforts to avert it, after two years struggling to survive, Hamakua Sugar on the island of Hawai'i declares bankruptcy.

1992: -Teamsters Local 681 struck Hawaiian Cement for 11 days in June.
-Dole Food Co. closes down its pineapple plantation on Lana'i.

1990: -7500 hotel worker and members of HERE, Local 5 strike 11 major hotels from March 3 to March 24 to protect their pension benefits.

1989: -June 15, the Japanese owners of Hawaii Country Club lay off all 11 (Filipino) maintenance workers belonging to Laborers, Local 368

1988: -Three week strike of Hawaiian Cement by members of Teamsters Local 681.
- April, The ILWU affiliates with the AFL-CIO.

1987: - November 1, 30 years after it had been expelled by the AFL-CIO, The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was readmitted to the AFL-CIO.

1986: -Symphony musicians represented by Local 677 strike for 15 weeks between August and November.
-850 members of HERE, Local 5 strike Kaiser Hospital from October 13 to November 29.

1984: -November, the Hawaii Government Employees Association (AFSCME Local 152) files a federal law suit against the state and counties of Hawaiʻi for system-wide sex discrimination for failure to compensate female workers according to their comparable worth.
-September, IBEW, Local 1186 (from the 10th) and Carpenters, Local 745 (from the 19th) strike which became a lockout by the General Contractors Association bringing the construction industry to a complete halt for 16 weeks.
-Lone Star Hawaii Rock Products and Pacific Concrete & Rock Co. lock out 170 workers and members of Teamsters Local 681 when the local struck Ameron HC&D.

1983: -On June 4, United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 480 strikes the 10 Safeway grocery stores in Hawai'i.

1982: -Appealing the results of a representation election held in February, the owner of Diners Drive-In fires most of the union supporters and refuses to negotiate with the union. July 6 to September 9, HERE Local 5 conducts a ULP strike against Diners Drive-In. The strike is broken.

1979: -October 22 to December 1, UPW is the first public sector union to go out legally on strike. However, the strike is declared illegal mid-way through.

1978: -January 23 - February 1, 3000 Construction & General Laborers belonging to Local 368 of the Laborers Union (LIUNA) strike the General Contractors Assn., Masonry Contactors, Home Builders Assn., and the Pacific Bureau for Lathing and Plastering (200 contractors state-wide). During the strike, an estimated 15,000 other construction workers refused to work behind the Laborers picket lines (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 2/13/78).

1977: -The Ironworkers Local 625 strike stops construction state-wide from mid-August through September.
- More than 160 members of IBEW 1260 which represented clerical, engineering, and other off-camera employees of KITV, KHON, and KGMB went on strike on Sept. 1, 1977. The strike ends on Sept. 25.

1976: -on December 3rd, 5,000 union construction workers march down Kapiʻolani Blvd. to City Hall in protest of the City Council's proposed construction moratorium.
-in January, 800 R.N.s belonging to the Hawai‘i Nurses Association strike six O‘ahu hospitals and 72 nurses strike Wilcox Hospital on Kauaʻi.

1974: -shortly after federal law extends bargaining rights to nurses, 477 Registered Nurses in the Hawai‘i Nurses Assn. strike four O‘ahu Hospitals for two weeks in May.
-May 7, 3300 Members of IBEW 1357 strike HawTel that lasts 40 days and tests the State's Unemployment Insurance "substantial curtailment" regulation.
-from April 7, 6,000 ILWU pineapple workers on O‘ahu, Maui and Lana‘i strike for 21 days.
-from the 9th of March, 9,000 ILWU sugar workers strike for 39 days.

1973: -from November 19th, 1100 members of IBEW Local 1260 strike Hawaiian Electric over pensions, wages, fringe benefts, and subcontracting
-April 2 to 16, HSTA becomes the first public sector union to go on strike under the new State law. The strike is declared illegal.

1972: -March 1 to April 10, 300 members of IBEW Local 1260 strike Dynalectron Corp. at Barking Sands Pacific Missile Range on Kaua'i.

1971: -HGEA and UPW put an end to many years of rivalry and jurisdictional disputes and become locals of the same international, AFSCME.
-from July 1st, 15,000 dockworkers on the West Coast and in Hawai‘i strike for 134 days. President Nixon temporarily halts the strike in October, but after the 90 day cooling off period expires on Christmas Day, the strike continues until February 1972.
-60-day bus driver strike, after HRT announces a wage and benefit cut from January 1 to March 1.

1970: -Hawai‘i enacts the Hawai‘i Public Employment Relations Act (now HRS §89) to give State and County workers the right to join unions and bargain for wages and working conditions.
-October 9 to December 24, 2000 hotel workers represented by ILWU strike neighbor island hotels for 75 days.

1969: -The various island units of the Hawaii Education Association convene and form the new Hawaii State Teachers Association, excluding school principals and other personnel not to be included in the new bargaining unit determined by state law.

1968: -ILWU pineapple workers strike for 61 days.
- Feb 21, Honolulu Symphony Musicians walk out of rehearsal in a "wildcat" strike over wages, the first strike in the orchestra's history.

1967: -March 1, employees of the HRT represented by Teamsters Local 996 begin a 67-day strike.

1966: -July 8 to August 19, the Machinists (IAM) strike Eastern, United, Northwest and TWA.
-Local 5 members strike 'Ilikai Hotel for 8 weeks.
-In convention, 160 representatives from 44 local unions form the new Hawaii State Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO on January 7th replacing the old Central Labor Council of Honolulu [see Pa‘a Hui Unions].

1963: -The Metal Trades Council of shipyard unions at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard obtains recognition from PHNSY after years of campaigning and employer resistance.
-The Hawaii Fire Fighters Association (HFFA) is first organized.
June 21, forty-seven day strike of Advertiser and Star-Bulletin by six unions, 850 workers.
-Local 5 members strike Halekulani Hotel in Waikīkī.

1961: -Dennis McCarthy takes over the NLRB subregion office in Hawai‘i.

1960

-First state-wide master agreement in construction between the contractors association and IBEW, the Carpenters, and the Laborers unions.

-Hawaii Meat Company lockout & Amalgamated Meat Cutters strike lasting 40 months. The strike is lost after the Ninth Circuit's decision to overturn the NLRB charges against the company.

-ILWU signs Mechanization and Modernization Agreement, which pioneers the tradeoff of members' job security for the employers' right to introduce labor-saving equipment.

-------------------------1959 STATEHOOD------------------------

1958

- February 1 to June 6 (128-day) sugar strike of 26 plantations involving some 13,700 workers, called "The Aloha Strike" because the ILWU made sure the cane was irrigated and kept alive until it was over.

-Local 594, Amalgamated Meat Cutters, forerunner of UFCW, is chartered in May by 30 members at Foodland; Foodland workers strike for 38 days.

-January 20, Smith Act convictions of "Hawai‘i Seven" reversed.

1954: - Dec. 1, Hod Carriers Local 368 (later known as the Laborers Union) is chartered.
-A Democratic Party revolution changes what was once a Republican Party political bastion in the Territorial legislature.

1953

-Thirty-eight of Hawaiʻi AFL unions reorganize and revive the Central Labor Council.

- June 19, ILWU begins a four day general strike in sugar, pineapple, and longshore to protest the Smoth Act convictions of Jack Hall and six others.

- June 16, Jack Hall of the ILWU and six others (the "Hawai‘i Seven") are convicted under the Smith Act for being communists. These convictions are later overturned by a federal appeals court.

1952: -Matson Hotel Strike by Local 5, HERE, lasts 14 days.

1951: - Dec. 24, Art Rutledge forms the Hawaii Federation of Labor Memorial Association, which four years later is renamed "Unity House," a joint fund of Teamsters Local 996, Hotel Workers Local 5, and the Transit Workers Union.
-August 28, Jack Hall of the ILWU and six others (the "Hawai'i Seven") are arrested under the Smith Act for being communists and advocating the overthrow of the government.
- Feb. 27 - Sept. 14, the second longest strike (201 days) in Hawaiʻi to that date on Lānaʻi. Led by ILWU business agent Pedro de la Cruz, 800 Pineapple workers strike the world's largest pineapple plantation, run by Hawaiian Pineapple Co.(Dole) and gain a 15 cent wage increase for themselves (3 cents more than they asked for) and a seven-cent an hour increase at 7 companies for 9,000 workers industry-wide in addition to union recognition, union shop and job seniority. Read more
- Feb. 23, Machinists Lodge 1998 (Pearl Harbor) is chartered.
-After 35 days, a strike that began before Christmas the previous year wins a major wage increase for Bus Drivers at HRT.

1950

- Oct. 4, Machinists Lodge 1979 is chartered.

-August 29, International Longshoremen and Warehouseman's Union, with 65,000 members in the West Coast and Hawai‘i, becomes the seventh union of eleven to be expelled from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

-April 10-21-Un-American Activities Committee hearings to "expose" Communism in Hawai‘i; several ILWU leaders held in "contempt of Congress" for refusing to answer questions.

1949: -August 7, November 1, Dock seizure acts passed by special session of legislature.
Great Hawaiian Dock Strike: longshore workers in Hawai‘i strike for six months (May 1 to October 25) to win wage parity with mainland dock workers. [Rice & Roses video available online in two-parts:]

1948

-October 11, most of the 1500 plantation workers strike Olaa Sugar, on the Big Island .

-September 21 to October 18, Mutual Telephone Strike by IBEW Local 1357.

-September 3 to October 8, Transit Workers strike unsuccessfully against HRT.

- May 7, electricians' strike of one contractor leads to a lockout by other O‘ahu contractors to force "open shop" on the new IBEW Local 1186 agreement.

1947: - July 11 though 15, over 18,000 pineapple workers represented by the ILWU strike, ending in partial defeat of union.

1946

- The Great Hawai‘i Sugar Strike: The ILWU leads 21,000 sugar workers throughout the state in a strike against the Hawaii Employers Council for 79 days from September to November. [Rice & Roses video available online in two-parts:]

- July 12 and 13 the transit workers of HRT instead of going on strike refuse to collect fares. The company fired 29 Amalgamated drivers. Drivers for the gas and oil companies go out on strike in sympathy until the Territorial Attorney General intervenes and forces the company to hire the drivers back.

- July 1, IBEW Local 1186 signs its first "master agreement" with an Oahu contractors' association.

1945

-The Territorial Legislature enacts the Hawai‘i Employment Relations Act (now HRS §377), the little Wagner Act" to extend the provisions similar to the National Labor Relations Act to Hawai'i's agricultural workers.

-January 27, State, County & Municipal Workers of America, Local 646 is chartered in Hilo by the CIO; later becomes UPWA and is today United Public Workers (UPW), an AFSCME affiliate.

-The first ILWU agreement for sugar workers is signed by flashlight at night on top of a garbage can in the alley in back of the Waikiki Tropics.

-January 12, NLRB rules that "Sugar plantation workers, excepting those who are employed in the cultivation of soil (including the harvesting of crops and the rearing and management of livestock), are employees within meaning of NLRA" and not exempt from the coverage of that federal law granting workers the right to form and or join labor unions [Pepeeko Sugar, 15 NLRB 1532].

1944: -ILWU helps win election for 16 House members and 8 Senators in the Territorial legislature.
-January 11, Teamsters Local 996 is chartered. [originally organized as Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Truckdrivers Union, Federal Local 22398 on July 22, 1940]

1943: -IBEW Local B-1357 is chartered on July 1.
-The Hawaii Employers Council is formed; Jim Blaisdell is brought in early in 1944 as its first chief negotiator.

1941

-IBEW Local B-1260 is chartered in February.

-February 1-28- the first bus strike in Hawai‘i. Strike for union shop at Honolulu Rapid Transit (HRT); several gains, but no union shop.

-June 12, the first written contract in Hawai‘i's longshore history is signed by Castle & Cooke Terminals and the ILWU.

1940: - June 6, IBEW Local 1186 is chartered.
-from July 18, ILWU Longshoremen at Ahukini on Kaua‘i strike for 298 days.

1938

-The Hilo Massacre: August 1st, a peaceful demonstration of sympathy strikers is attacked by the Hilo Police. Fifty unarmed unionists, men and women, are hit by shotgun fire. [Available online: Rice & Roses video, and the book]

-August 1st, the Central Labor Council of Honolulu (AFL), ancestor of the Hawai‘i State AFL-CIO, is chartered.

-In June, Arnold Wills opens Hawai‘i's NLRB office.

- February, after a 50 day strike, Workers at Primo Brewery win a union shop clause.

-Hotel Workers' (HERE), Local 5 is chartered on January 1.

1937

-June 7, Stage Employees (IATSE), Local 665 is chartered.

-June 6, the Newspaper Guild of Hawai‘i, (CIO) Local 117 is chartered

-May 1, the first International Workers' Day Parade in Hawai‘i is held on Maui. Complete with an eight-piece band, 2,500 Filipinos led by a young Filipina holding a Philippine flag marched the four miles from Wailuku to Kahului. Signs read, "We Want To Work - But We Want Justice" and "Make This A Workers' Paradise." That evening crewmen from the S.S. Golden Cloud provided entertainment, gave donation, and assured maritime support

-April 10 to June 16, at Pu‘unēnē on Maui, the Filipino labor union, Vibora Luviminda, conducts Hawai‘i's last racially exclusive strike.

-January 8, the Metal Trades Council is chartered.

1935: -Hilo Longshoremen's Association is organized, later to become ILWU, Local 1-36.
-October 28, Jack Hall, organizer for the Sailors Union of the Pacific and the Marine Cooks and Stewards arrives in Hawai‘i.

1934

-March 24, U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act (Philippine Independence Act) reclassified all Filipinos living in the United States as "aliens" and restricted entry of Philippine labor to 50 per year.

-Pacific Coast Longshoremen lead the San Francisco General Strike for 81 days; on July 5 (Bloody Thursday) two pickets were killed by the police.

-On October 25th, Art Rutledge first arrives in Honolulu.

1933: -Honolulu City & County workers at the Board of Water Supply form the Hawaii Giovernment Employees Association (HGEA).

1924: -September 9th, 16 Filipino sugar workers striking at Hanapēpē, Kaua‘i are killed by police. Many of the surviving strikers are jailed and then deported.
see also: UH Center for Oral History's 1924 Filipino Stike Project.
- May 26, 1924 Calvin Coolidge signed the 1924 immigration bill into law, effectively ending Japanese immigration to the U.S.

1923: -Anti-picketing law passed (in force until 1945) - one of many anti-labor laws.
-July 23, Musicians Local 677 is chartered.

1922: -The Higher Wage Movement of Filipino laborers is established in the fall.

1921: -Hawaii Education Association, the ancestor of the Hawaii State Teachers Association-NEA is formed.

1920

- Jan. 19, 1920, 3,000 members of the Filipino Labor Union walked off their jobs; Japanese workers soon joined them. By early February, 8,300 laborers on six O‘ahu plantations were on strike, representing 77% of the work force, This landmark coalition strike lasted five months (165 days) against the Hawaii Sugar Planters Association. But the coalition broke down and the strike was lost.

-from May 3, a strike of Mutual Telephone by IBEW Local 545 successfully raises wages but is unable to achieve union recognition.

-January 19, seven-day strike by one hundred teamsters at Honolulu Construction & Draying is broken up my strike-breakers and police.

1919

-In November an AFL organizational meeting used the newspaper to invite clerks in Honolulu to form a union is disrupted by union-busters. -In October, Plumbers, Local 675 is chartered.

- In August street car motormen and conductors of the Honolulu Rapid Transit and Land Company meet to discuss A. F. of L. affiliation and to formulate wage demands. - Women telephone operators on the island of Maui strike Mutual Telephone Company for two days in July to get rest & meal breaks

-The Federation of Japanese Labor in Hawai'i is formed to unify and coordinate the different Japanese labor organizations that had formed on the various plantations.

-Machinists Lodge 1245 is chartered in Honolulu on Feb. 25.

1916: -September 19, 1,500 Hawaiian and Japanese Longshoremen newly organized in an ILA local strike for higher wages and a union shop. They win raises but not recognition. [read more]

1912: - Americn Association of Masters, Mates and Pilots, Honolulu Harbor No. 54, succesful strike against Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co. -all vessels tied up for six days over non-payment of over-time and a demanded wage increase.
-Industrial Workers of the World is listed in the Honolulu directory. Activity is reported in November among Japanese sugar workers.

1909: -May 9 to August 5, the Japanese Higher Wage Association leads the sugar workers strike in ‘Aiea, Waipahu, and throughout O‘ahu, supported by neighbor island Japanese workers. After several months the strike is broken by scabs.

1908: -December 1, under the leadership of Tomoyuki Negoro, Japanese intellectuals and community leaders form the Higher Wage Association to improve the pay and working conditions of sugar workers.

1907: -February 18, Congress approved amending existing immigration legislation which allowed President Theodore Roosevelt to issue an executive order stopping the migration of Japanese laborers from Hawai‘i and Mexico on Mar. 14, 1907.
-February 24, the U.S. concludes a "Gentlemen's Agreement" with Japan in the form of a Japanese note agreeing to deny passports to laborers intending to enter the United States and recognizing the U.S. right to exclude Japanese immigrants holding passports originally issued for other countries.

1906: Dec. 20, the first group of 15 sakadas (Filipino plantation workers) recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association arrive in Honolulu aboard the SS Doric and were assigned to the Ola‘a plantation on the Big Island. By 1916, 18,144 Filipinos arrive in Hawai‘i. By 1932 the number rises to 100,000.
-Januaru 16-22, 1,700 Japanese sugar workers strike in Waipahu.

1905

-September 29 - October 6, Lāhainā, Maui, 1,500 of 2,200 Japanese field hands strike for 15c/day increase. Strike is lost except for minor grievances settled. Koreans refuse to join strike. Considred a sequel to the Pioneer Mill strike (May 20-24)

-May 29, Pā‘ia, Maui, about 160 Korean sugar workers are fired for beating a luna; 80 more at Kailua Camp strike in sympathy. Four leaders are arrested; near riot results. -May 20-24, A strike by 1,700 Japanese sugar workers at Pioneer Sugar Company in Lāhainā is broken with assistance from the Japanese consulate and after a violent attack on the strikers by Maui police.

1904

-December 2-11, delegates elected by the contract cane cutters at Waialua Agricultural Company on O‘ahu supported by the other Japanese workers on that plantation refuse work until their grievances are addressed. The strike lasted one week and involved 1,196 workers. 26 of their 32 demands were granted in what is probably the first example of collective bargaining in the Hawaiian sugar induistry.

July 20-25, 1,400 of 2,400 Japanese sugar workers strike in Waipahu against unfair 'profit-sharing' contrats and for removal of another luna. The luna is transfered but the so-caled 'profit sharing contracts are kept.

-May 2-5, 1,390 of 2,400 Japanese field hands stike Waipahu sugar plantation for discharge of the head luna (Patterson) who was running a lotter racket and other grievances. Strike is won. Patterson is fired & most other grievances are adjusted. first Korean plantation workers arrive.

1903: -The first Korean plantation workers arrive.

1901: -August 22, 150 stevedores at Hamilton, McCabe & Renny (working at 30 cents an hour, 9 hours a day) struck in protest against a wage cut. When the 150 "Portuguese, Italians, Porto Ricans, Negroes and natives" walked off they were promptly replaced with Japanese who had been recruited beforehand.
-March 16-July 2- Machinists Lodge 341 strikes Honolulu Works for 8-hour day and union shop; both strike and union smashed.

1900: -September 3, First Labor Day Parade in Hawai‘i held in Honolulu.
-July, Carpenters Local 745 is chartered.
-June 22-24, 188 Chinese and Japanese field hands and mill workers strike against the retention of a percent of their wages.
April 30, The Organic Act was signed by President McKinley. This act incorporated Hawai‘i as a Territory of the United States. As a territory, the existing oppressive labor contracts were no longer legal in Hawai‘i once the act went into effect on June 14.
-April 4th to 13th, 1,160 Japanese field hands on the Lāhainā plantation organize a strike over wages, conditions and industrial injury compensation -generally considered the first successful strike in Hawai‘i.
-January 20, thirty-eight acres of Honolulu's Chinatown burns to the ground leaving 4,000 Chinese homeless.
-January 8, the S.S. China arrives in Honolulu with the first new plantation laborers from Okinawa.

1899: -On Maui, 130 Chinese workers march from Wailuku to Sprecklesville to demand hot meals be served in camp.
-Another "riot" of Chinese workers at Wai‘anae Plantation is crushed by camp police "posse". 17 Chinese are injured and the 4 strike leaders are arrested and imprisoned for 18 months.
-May 20, Boilermakers Local 204 is chartered.
-July 28 and 29, the first non-plantation strike of Boilermakers, Local 204 in protest over the discharge of a foreman.

----------------------August 12, 1898: ANNEXATION-----------------

1897: -Chinese workers at Līhu‘e Plantation "riot" in protest of the brutality of the head luna. One Chinese is killed and 15 are deported.

1895: -The Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association (HSPA) is formed, replacing the Planters' Labor & Supply Co.

-----------------1893 OVERTHROW OF MONARCHY--------------------

1891: -In August, 300 Chinese workers "riot" at Kohala Plantation, protesting the plantation's requirement that they return one third of their pay or be deported.
- March 5, Hawaiian Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Masters & Servants Act of 1850 after a contract laborer from Japan sues for release from his employer, the Hilo Sugar Co. claiming "involuntary servitude" (Hilo Sugar v. Miyoshi)

1889: -On October 28, Katsu Goto, one of the first Japanese contract laborers was lynched by two luna. and a haole shopkeeper in Honokaʻa on the island of Hawai‘i for helping the Japanese plantation workers. [read more]

1886: -The Hawaiian Kingdom Chinese Exclusion Act is passed, prohibiting further importation of Chinese labor after 1888.

1885: -On February 8, the first Japanese contract field workers arrive on board the City of Tokio: 676 men; 158 women.

1884: -August 9, Typographical Union, No. 37 is chartered in Honolulu.

1883: -The Kingdom enacts its first law to limit Chinese immigration.

1882: -The United States Congress passes the first Chinese Exclusion Act.
-The Planters' Labor and Supply Company s formed by plantation owners in Hawai‘i to facilitate the importation of laborers.

1878: -The first Portuguese laborers begin to arrive.

1876: -The Sugar Reciprocity Treaty between the United States and Kingdom of Hawai‘i.

1869: -July, Honolulu Longshoremen strike to raise their wages to $2 a day; again they are replaced by scabs.

1868: May 17, The Scioto set sail out of Yokohama for Hawai‘i, carrying 153 Japanese migrants bound for employment on the sugar plantations. These adventurers constituted the first mass emigration of Japanese overseas. They became known as the Gannenmono..

1867: --May, Honolulu Longshoremen strike to raise their wages from $1 to $1.50 a day; they are replaced by scabs.

1857: -September 1, the Hawaiian Mechanics Benefit Union is chartered. It was disincorporated in 1893.

1853: -After half an hour of deliberation, the Supreme Court of Hawai‘i finds a White landowner not guilty of the beating death his Chinese laborer despite overwhelming testimony to the contrary. [The King v Greenwell]

1852: -On January 3, the Thetis arrives with the first 175 Chinese field workers bound to serve for five years at $3 per month. Immigration of Chinese workers begins. 46,000 enter prior to Annexation.

1850

-April 29, sugar planters hold their first meeting in Honolulu to organize the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society so they can form a "union of interest and feeling, and concert of action".

-June 21, the Hawaiian Legislature passes the Masters and Servants Act which establishes a system of contract labor.

-August 31, Kamehameha III declares Honolulu to be a city and the capitol of the kingdom.

1841: -July, Hawaiian sugar workers on the islands' first plantation at Kōloa, Kaua‘i who were being paid in pasteboard scrip at the rate of 12½ cents a day, conduct Hawai‘i's first strike.

1835: -William Hooper of Ladd & Co. arrives at Kōloa on the island of Kaua‘i to begin management of the kingdom's first sugar plantation.

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Center for Labor Education & Research University of Hawai‘i - West O‘ahu

Center for Labor Education & Research
University of Hawai‘i - West O‘ahu