Foodland workers across Hawaiʻi are proving what coordinated, rank-and-file power looks like. With their contract having expired on October 31, ILWU Local 142 kicked off a major statewide mobilizing campaign to support Foodland negotiations and things are starting off incredibly strong.
It’s scholarship season - that time of year when students and their families locate and apply for funding to pay for tuition and other college expenses. A number of scholarships exist specifically for ILWU members or their children who are pursuing higher education. But the system is not always easy to navigate as applicants need to access various applications, keep track of deadlines, and ensure all required materials are completed. This is a guide for our members who are looking to apply for scholarships, either for themselves or for their children.
ILWU Local 142 is building bridges to the next generation of Hawaiʻi’s workforce, showing young people that good jobs and a strong future are possible when workers stand together in a union.
On Friday, September 19, Local 142 took part in Castle High School’s Career Exploration Fair, an event that welcomed hundreds of students—from freshmen to seniors—to meet with local employers, education programs, and community groups.
ILWU Local 142 is proud to welcome its newest unit: the ILWU Credit Union. Though the unit is small, with just three members, its significance is large, bringing into the union family an organization that has long stood side- by-side with ILWU members.
The ILWU Credit Union was founded in 1954 to serve the financial needs of ILWU members and their families.
The University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu’s Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR) has a new leader — and she’s no stranger to Hawaiʻi’s labor movement. Dion Dizon, JD, has been appointed Director of CLEAR, returning to the center where her journey began as a student intern.
The formation of the ILWU Hawaiʻi Longshore Division (HLD) Pensioners Program marks an important step in honoring the generations of longshore workers who helped build and sustain our union. Pensioners are carriers of knowledge, culture, and history. Even in retirement, they have a vital role to play—as mentors, educators, and active union voices.
Have you seen this photograph before? Can you tell what it is? The ‘Iolani Palace in the background signifies a royal event—and indeed it is. This image captures part of the funeral procession of Queen Liliʻuokalani, as her body was moved to lie in state at the Palace. The men in white are “poʻolā,” or Native Hawaiian stevedores.
Increasing awareness and growing pride in Hawaiʻi’s labor movement was the goal for this year’s Ea Hawaiʻi Field School - a week-long Maui-based 3-credit class with students from Oʻahu, Maui, and this year, Lānaʻi. The 2025 field school was a collaboration between UH Mānoa, UH Maui College, and for the first time in the program’s ten year history, the Lānaʻi Education Center and the ILWU Local 142.
This summer, Local 142 members finds themselves at two ends of the bargaining table in Hawai‘i’s healthcare sector—celebrating a contract win at Kaiser Permanente and stepping into a high stakes contract negotiation for members at the Straub Medical Center.
It’s been two years since wind and fire mixed to set Lahaina ablaze. The devastation was swift and widespread — entire neighborhoods reduced to ash, hundreds displaced, and a beloved historic town forever changed. But in the months and years since, something else has taken root: the long, uneven, but determined path toward healing and rebuilding.
Increasing awareness and growing pride in Hawaiʻi’s labor movement was the goal for this year’s Ea Hawaiʻi Field School - a week-long Maui-based 3-credit class with students from Oʻahu, Maui, and this year, Lānaʻi. The 2025 field school was a collaboration between UH Mānoa, UH Maui College, and for the first time in the program’s ten year history, the Lānaʻi Education Center and the ILWU Local 142. 
