The Strikes
On 4 February 1938, strikes began. The strikers demanded equal wages with workers on the West Coast and closed shop or union shop. Strikes continued well into July and August. The SS Waialeale, owned by the Inter-Island Steamship Company, which in turn was owned by the Big Five, was due to come in to port on 1 August. On that day, protesters from different unions arrived to protest the ship's docking. Witnesses estimated the crowd anywhere from 80 to 800, with the newspapers reports saying around 500 to 600. It is likely, however, that there were only around 200 protesters.
Read more about this topic: Hilo Massacre
Famous quotes containing the word strikes:
“Kassandra shakes out her hair
Its gold clasped
With half-opened laurel-shoots
When the god strikes her
With his breath.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)