The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-07-21
ORGANIZE UNION;
MAKE DEMANDS
sTEvEDoREs AND ROAD WORK.
ERs IN oAHoors WITH MAN
BEHIND THRONE"


tho Longshoremen 3 Union, Local No.
SS-44, was formally organized last
night Tho meeting took place at the
Y, M. 1. hall ON King street, aud 80
large was tho attendance that many had
TO stand on the lanai, the hall being
filed. Tho attendance was very en-
thusiasac abO1t the union, and so great
was the anxiety TO join that the work
OF initiating members went on until
midnight, when 27S had been enrolled.
The meeting was then postponed until
next Friday, when Il is expected that
another hundred members, mainly men
from Papaikou and other villages in
the vicinity of Hilo, WIN join the or
ganization.
The charter for the new organization
was received last Sunday. 1t gives the
Hilo branch jurisdiction over Hlo, Pu.
ma and Hamakua, and includes long
shoremen, road workers, handlers Of
lumber, coal, grain and tho like, but
does not include mechanics.
The following officers were elected
last Friday evening: John Kealoha,
president; j. X. Paahao, ce-president;
Bernard Kelel5olio, recording secretary;
nj. s. Pacheco, financial secretary, aad
treasurer, William Clark. 1t will be
noted that David Ewaliko was not
elected to any Office. AS matter of
fact he remains as the power behind
the throne, having been appointed by
the main organization ON the mainland
to be secretary, trsasurer for the local.
Ready For Business.
| The new branch will get ready for
business Immediately. 1t has been de-
cided to lease room at the Y. M. I.
| building, where an Office will be estab-
lished with telephone, ETC., and at
the meeting this week the matter of
appointing a paid business agent, who
will be in attendance at the office, and
of an executive board viii be taken up.
| On August /, says Ewaliko, the union
will be ready for active business He
will call on the shippers and viii ask
them to employ only members of the
union in the discharging and loading of
their freight. The union will particu-
larly insist that no Japanese be employ
ed on the longshoremen g work. The
union will not insist on having q union
foreman appointed, bat will be salts
fed as long as the foreman is not an
Asiatic. This is in accordance with
advice received from tho organization
headquarters. The union viii also take
contracts for the handling of freight
and road work.
The union is satisfied with the wages
paid longshoremen here at present,
namely, two dollars day, at least for
the present; but it hopes soon to be
able to show the employers that it can
do so much better work than the
Asiatics that higher scale of wages
will soon be given voluntarily by the
! employers.
Already Beginning.
At the meeting last Friday motion
was made by Ewalilzo that the union
communicate with the Pacific Coast dis
trict, and through it with the American
Federation of Labor, asking that or
ganization to take steps to prevent
the employment here of sailors ON the
loading and discharging of vessels, the
argument being that this work should
be done by the local longshoremen.
This motion carried.
Ewal1kO also made an address to the
union in regard to the statement which
had been made that the Hawaiians
would not work us stevedores. He
stated that he had made careful in
vestigation of the matter and that he
had found that the Hawaiians were
perfectly willing, as a matter of fact,
very anxious to work on the steamers.
They complained that the japanese
foreman who had charge of the selee-
tlon of stevedores, picked out the Jap
auaae WIN lvad in "a house which he
owned. and that very few Hawaiians
were employed. Furthermore, the Jap
anese were given the pick of the work,
and the few Hawaiians who were en-
ployed, were given the most dangerous
and lisagreeable work, the result often
being that they became SO Disguised
that they failed to turn up the follow
ing day for work. Furthermore, the
Hawaiians objected 10 working side by
side with the Japanese, anyhow.