The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1945-12-27
Honolulu Labor Canteen Is Crossroads OF Pacific

Honolulu, Hawall-(FP) P).-HaWall 5
war-built labor movement has one OF
the most terrific goodwill ideas in the
labor world by the tail here in Homo
lulu, and with a little more aid from
unions in the U. S., it will hold on.
The idea is the Honolulu Labor
Canteen. On the mainland most labor
canteens have been closed down since
VI Day but here the canteen opened
four days after VI Day and the need
for it increases every week.
The Honolulu Labor Canteen is a
funnel. Here financial contributions
from AFL and CIO unions from the
four corners of the u. S., and from
Canada, maintain quarters and ali
kinds of activities for CT unionists
from the four corners of the Pacific.
Probably half the servicemen in the
Pacific hit Honolulu on the way out
on on the way back home. Here the
newcomers receive special training
for the Pacific area. Here many Of
the high-pointers sweat it out while
they wait for ships to the U. S.
dream boats that never seem to come
in. And besides, Uncle Sam has sta
toned more or less permanently in
the Hawaiian Islands a small army
that would do credit to many ma
tion in peacetime.
On the walls of the canteen are out
line maps of the various states of the
union, Canada and other allied coun-
tries. Scrawled over them are the
names, addresses, local union num-
bers of visiting GIs, hungry for word
from home even, believe it or not, OF
the doings of Local X of the ABC in
ternational union back in Coshocton,
Mo.
No union man coming into the can
teen fails to find at least one union
brothers name, from his hometown
or vicinity, on the wall maps. And
nearby hang the yellow sheets of Fed
Grated Press news copy, airmailed
from the mainland, with news Of all
their unions.
The labor movement in Hawaii was
not large when the war started. Since
then civilian workers in the great
Pearl Harbor navy yards and teams
ters and the like have swelled the
ranks of the AFL. The CIO has mush-
roomed up from few hundred to
many thousand in campaign of the
Intl. Longshoremen's & Warehouse
mems Union that has organized pine
apple and sugar plantation field work
ers, mill operators and transportation
hands.
And AFL and CIO have cooperated
in a political action campaign that
elected majority to the island as
'sembly and nearly half of the island
senate, with good labor laws an, i'm
mediate result. al
But the number of union people
here is still small compared with the
number of GI unionists who make use
of the canteen, and support from the
mainland is a necessity. From auto
workers in Oakland and Inglewood
Calf, from boilermakers in Kansas
City, bartenders in New York, car
penters i'm Cleveland, iron molders in
Milwaukee, merchant seamen in New
York and many others have come the
contributions.
From every known AFL and CIC
union and many unaffiliated u. 5
unions come the men and women who
visit the canteen. They attend dances
public affairs forums addressed by
Gls, Hawaii civilians, visiting British
sailors talking on the British labor
government, men from the labor
movement all over the world.
They edit a paper, they instruct OF
study in classes on labor history and
on vocational subjects to fit them for
jobs back home. But mostly they re-
sumo contact with their unions at
home and get a few labor facts
after spending months under a bar
rage of anti-union propaganda in most
of the magazines and papers that
reach servicemen.
AS long as there are troops in the
Pacific, the Honolulu Labor Canteen
has a job to do, and a big one. 1t asks
from the unions at home just two
things:
/. Airmail a copy of your local or
international union paper, every is
sue, to Honolulu Labor Canteen, $50
Richards St, Honolulu, T. HI.