Background
As part of the New Deal, Congress in 1935 passed the Wagner Act, legalizing workers' right to join and be represented by labor unions. Hawaii — not yet a State — had been, starting in the 1920s, virtually controlled by the "Big Five": Alexander & Baldwin, C. Brewer, Castle & Cooke, American Factors, and Theo. Davies. Furthermore, the Hawaii labor force had been divided up into racial blocs, which helped keep wages low.
Harry Kamoku (1905–1957) was the primary organizer and leader of the first real union in Hawaii to be legally recognized. Kamoku was a Chinese-Hawaiian and a longshoreman, born in Hilo in 1905.
On November 22, 1935 Kamoku and about 30 longshoremen of every ethnicity formed the Hilo Longshoremen's Association. This successful, and other unions were created or came in to Hawaii from other states or countries, including the Inland Boatmen's Union (IBU), the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) and the Metal Trades Council (MTC).
Read more about this topic: Hilo Massacre
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