When the ILWU began organizing in Hawaii, a handful of wealthy families owned the sugar and pineapple plantations and the largest companies. Individuals from these families, their attorneys, or the managers and supervisors of their companies ran for elected office as Republicans. Workers were expected to vote for Republicans and could lose their jobs if they voiced any objections or supported Democrats. In this way, big business and their wealthy owners controlled the legislature and government.

Oahu Division shares their phone number with the main switchboard of the Honolulu ILWU Hall. Members should ask for Oahu Division. Division Clerk Lisa Maehara or Senior/General Office Clerk Serena Takahashi will direct you to your business agent or take a message. You can also phone or email your business agent after hours. Your unit chair usually has the business agent’s cell phone number and email. Business agents are required to carry their union supplied cell phone and to be available during reasonable hours seven days a week.

Mike Machado, retired Kauai Division Director, took this group photo of the pensioners attending the conference from Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai.

Attentive members learn about their first contract before voting on whether to accept the new contract.

Delivery drivers, container drivers, delivery helpers, warehouse workers, and warehouse utility workers at Anheuser-Busch Sales of Hawaii, Inc. ratified their first union contract overwhelmingly on April 29, 2016.

Americans are beginning to dump our throw-away economy. Curbside recycling is now available in most west coast communities and more than 9,000 cities across America. It’s helping to divert one-third of our waste that used to be burned or buried.

Recycling is also good because it conserves raw materials and saves money for local governments. And it reduces greenhouse gases that cause global climate change.

First of all, the Voice of the ILWU is the official newspaper of the ILWU Local 142. You are receiving the newspaper because you are now a member of the ILWU. As a member of ILWU Local 142, you are part of a long and proud tradition where workers join or form organizations for their mutual benefit and to promote fairness and justice on the job. These organizations are called labor unions, trade unions, or just unions.

Believe it or not, most workers organize into unions because of bad working conditions and poor treatment by management and not for higher wages and benefits. When workers are organized into unions, they gain the power to change their working conditions and demand respect and fair treatment from management.

“Units” are what we call the ILWU organization at your workplace. This means that sometime in the past, the workers at your company organized and a majority voted to unionize with the ILWU. The workers then negotiated a collective bargaining agreement (also called union contract) with your employer which puts in writing your wages, benefits, working conditions, and rights on the job.

The five-year agreement covers 52 members who now belong to ILWU Local 142, Oahu Division. The contract calls for a 4.5 percent wage increase upon ratification and a wage increase of 1.5 percent-1.75 percent each year thereafter, for a total pay raise of 10.5 percent-11.5 percent over the life of the contract.

The new agreement provides an invaluable benefit—job security. It will protect the workers against arbitrary discipline or firing by establishing just cause for any disciplinary action the company may initiate.