HONOLULU—After one-year at a temporary location at 720 Kapiolani Blvd in 
Honolulu, the ILWU has returned to its centtral headquarters at 451 Atkinson Drive.
The central office is home to the Local Offiicers and staff, the Oahu Division and its
full-time officers, the International Hawaii Regional Office, the Organizing
Department, and the union’s bookkeeping, mailroom, printshop, and library.

Renovations at 451 Atkinson Drive began in January of 2002 and are currently being completed.

The front doors of the ILWU building facing Atkinson Drive. The mortar and brick facade represents ILWU members. The individual bricks are joined together to form a strong building; similarly, individual members join in solidarity to form a strong union.

Hale Hapaiko undergoes major construction, including new wiring, walls, windows and doors.

A view of the new first floor lobby includes the reception desk at left.

Mailroom and printshop worker Gabriella “Gigi” Andrade prepares a mailout at an extra-long countertop. The counter-top will come in handy when space is needed to collate new contracts.

Bookkeeping department worker Cecilia Calpito in her new modular work station, which includes shelving above and a pull-out keyboard below her desk.

It’s good to be home,” said Local President Bo Lapenia at the rededication ceremony of phase two of the ILWU building on December 19, 2002. “Now we have a building we can be proud of and will serve us well for another 50 years.”

Vice-President Robert G. Girald never suspected the amount of work that would be involved when he took primary responsibility for the year-long building renovation and relocation of the central office. Heath Construction Services was hired to manage and coordinate the construction side of the project, but the union still needed someone to make hundreds of command decisions that constantly came up during construction.

John Arisumi (right), president of the ILWU Memorial Association, was a member of the ILWU since 1938. Arisumi retired as the ILWU’s Maui division director in 1991. The Memorial Association is the actual owners of the property and building which is then leased to the union.

The move back to the Atkinson building was made during the week of Dec. 9 to 13, 2002. By Monday, December 16, the central office was back in business, despite the fact that last minute construction and installation was still going on. The computer network and phone system were still being installed, the door locks were still being keyed, temporary glass was
in the window sills waiting for the final installation of windows, the security system was being wired, and so on.

The one-year renovation, which was approved by ILWU members at the 22nd ILWU Local 142 Convention in September 2000, left the structure and framework of the 50 year old building intact but completely restored and modernized the interior of the building. New plumbing, drainage systems, lighting, electrical wiring, and cabling for data networks were installed. Restrooms were repaired and modernized and entrance ways upgraded to meet current building codes requiring handicap access. Meeting rooms and offices were renewed.

Hale Hapaiko transformed
The part of the building that went through the most visible and significant change was the “Hale Hapaiko Hall,” the large meeting room which spanned part of the parking lot in the rear of the building. “Hale” is house in Hawaiian, “hapai” means to carry, and “ko” is sugar cane. “Hapaiko” refers to the old
method of harvesting sugar cane by carrying the cane stalks on the back.

In the past, the hall was often used for large meetings and even conventions. Instead of air- conditioning, one wall was covered with large louvered windows which let in the air, but, as Honolulu and the traffic on Atkinson Drive grew, the windows also let in the noise from the busy street. Over time the noise and the heat made it more and more difficult and uncomfortable to use the hall for meetings. As a result, the hall was used less and less often.

Improvements to the Hale Hapaiko Hall now make it much more useable. The hall is air- conditioned and moving
partitions make it possible to divide the large hall into five separate meeting rooms. Each of the small meeting rooms are wired for telephone, computer networks, and upgradable for video. The restrooms below the hall, which had broken down and were being used for storage, were repaired and modernized. A corridor was opened to the main building to allow handicap access.

The Local Executive Board was the first to use the renovated Hale Hapaiko Hall for their December 19 and 20 meeting. On the night of December 19, the hall easily accommodated the 200 people who came to the ILWU Local 142’s annual Christmas Party.

Plenty of meeting space
Besides the Hale Hapaiko Hall, there are large conference rooms on the first and third floor of the main building and smaller meeting rooms scattered throughout the building. Organizing, Oahu Division, and the International
Hawaii Regional Office now have their own conference rooms. There are enough meeting and conference rooms to hold as many as five negotiations at the same time. There is also enough meeting space to hold large conferences or institutes like the ILWU Labor Institute, which requires a facility with at least five classrooms.

The library was expanded to make room for the over 60 years of the official records and history of the ILWU. What used to be used by pensioners as a game room is now the archives section of the library. So much material
is in the library that the floor beneath the library had to be reinforced to hold the weight. 

The library is now divided into an active, working section and an archival, storage section. The rooms are climate controlled to prevent the deterioration and help preserve the old and sometimes fragile records.

Working areas
The Atkinson building also houses several production centers  of the union. The bookkeeping department records the monthly dues payments made by over 22,000 ILWU members. The department keeps the books and financial records for Local 142 and over 200 units.

In the old building, the book-keeping staff were often hidden behind financial records that were stacked from floor to ceiling. The new bookkeeping area has more room, brand new modular work stations, and rows of file cabinets to keep the old records out of sight and out of the way. 

The ILWU has its own printshop to make the tens of thousands of contract books that are given to union members to inform them of their rights, benefits, and conditions of employment. These contracts detail the collective bargaining agreements reached between the union and over 200 employers, and new contract books have to be printed everytime a contract is renegotiated. The printshop also produces training manuals, organizing leaflets, letterheads, internal forms, and takes care of the hundreds of other printing needs of a large organization like the
ILWU.

In the new building, the area given to the printshop and mailroom are about the same but has been reorganized to make more efficient use of the space.

Come and visit
ILWU members are welcome to drop by and take a look at their newly renovated union headquarters. It’s a place we can once again be proud of.