The power of labor in Hawai'i and its influence in politics had its roots in the organization of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union.
The union can trace its Hawai'i beginnings to the mid-1930s when Jack Hall, merchant seaman turned union firebrand, arrived to help organize dockworkers.
A veteran of the violent waterfront strike in San Francisco, Hall brought militancy to the labor movement and helped the ILWU bring basic changes to the social order of the Islands. The union weathered long and difficult strikes on plantations and on the docks, but the ILWU prevailed to become a strong force for decades.
Its first real test came in 1938 when the union's fledgling Hawai'i membership — 45 on a good day — helped direct a strike against the Inter-Island Steamship Co. When workers marched on the Hilo docks on Aug. 1, 1938, to protest the arrival of a ship run by armed strikebreakers, they were met by police, who used firehoses, tear gas and shotguns to turn them back.
They would lose the strike, but the union gained much in worker solidarity. By 1941, the ILWU was doing well, with Hawai'i organizers forging strong working ties with the powerful parent union on the Mainland. That June, the union signed its first written contract in Hawai'i's waterfront history.
The start of World War II stalled organizing, but by 1944, the ILWU was back in action and about to engage in a pair of strikes that would define the union.
In September 1946, the union organized sugar workers like never before and launched a strike that shut down all but one of the territory's 34 plantations. More than 26,000 workers were involved as the union drew strength by crossing ethnic lines in a fight against racial and ethnic discrimination. A victory after 79 days changed the balance of power: Now the workers knew they could challenge working conditions.
The bitter dockworkers strike of 1949 is viewed as a pivotal moment in the history of the ILWU in Hawai'i. The strike stunned the territory because it shut down the docks for six months. Police were needed to escort nonstrikers to their jobs, walking them past union members armed with clubs.
The ILWU prevailed despite relentless Red-baiting by Honolulu newspapers that called the union leaders communist agents of the Soviet Union.
