Oahu Sugar Strike of 1920
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The Oahu sugar strike of 1920 was a multiracial strike in Hawaii of two unions, the
Filipino American Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...
Filipino Labor Union and the Japanese American Federation of Japanese Labor. The labor action involved 8,300 sugar plantation field workers out on strike from January to July 1920. The unions' demands for a pay increase were met by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association. Some 150 evicted workers and their family members died of the epidemic
Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...
during the strike, with their poor living conditions presumably contributing to their deaths.


Background

Before the 1920 strike, when one ethnic group went on strike the other groups worked as strikebreakers, leading to a strike's failure. Before the strike fieldworkers were paid wages that met the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
. With the start of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, supplies directed to the war effort drove up living expenses and wages remained the same, putting much of the plantation work force into destitution, which lingered after the war ended. After years of organizing, the Filipino Labor Union and the Federation of Japanese Labor united the Filipino and Japanese groups. The unions brought their demands to the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association on December 4, 1919. The demands were pay raises from $0.77 to a $1.25 for males and $0.58 to $0.90 per day and paid maternal leave for females (With inflation $1 in 1920 is about $ in ). Initially the planters refused demands and expected to outlast the strike.


Strike

Roughly speaking the strike began for Filipinos on January 20, 1920, and the Japanese officially joined on February 1, although many Japanese joined independently earlier. The strike involved 8,300 workers spanning six plantations: 5,000 Japanese, 3,000 Filipinos, and 300 of other ethnicities – Portuguese, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, Spanish, Mexicans, and Koreans. In retaliatory action against the strike the plantations
evicted Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. In some jurisdictions it may also involve the removal of persons from premises that were foreclosed by a mortgagee (often, the prior owners who defaulted on a mortgag ...
picketers and their families from plantation housing. A total of 12,020 people were evicted. The evicted took shelter in homes of strike sympathizers, hotels, tents, empty buildings and factories as well as Buddhists and Shinto churches, but Christian clergy had been prominent opponents of the strike and turned away homeless pickets and their families from lodging in Christian churches. The Board of Health re-evicted 300 Filipinos that had taken up residence in a brewery at Kakaako and they moved into tents. Another dilemma was finances for food. The Japanese union's approach was to build up a reserve for the Japanese picketers and their families; this fund held $900,000. The Filipino union's approach was to be sustained by donations from Filipinos working on other plantations not affected by the strike. In less than a month, the Filipinos were desperately low on funding and on the verge of starvation. If the Filipinos were to return to work the strike would collapse. The Japanese union used their reserves to sustain the Filipino picketers, averting a collapse of the strike. After months of striking immense boredom became a problem that had to be addressed. The Federation of the Japanese Labor arranged a protest march with 3,000 participants on April 3 and went down King street.


Casualties

During the strike the
Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...
hit Hawaii. 1,056 Japanese fell ill by the flu of whom 55 died. 1,440 Filipinos fell ill and 95 died during the worldwide epidemic. Picketers blamed the plantations for these casualties as the evictions had forced many of them to live in crowded living quarters.


Conclusion

The strike lasted until July 1, more than half a year, when a compromise was reached at the
Alexander Young Building The Alexander Young Hotel was one of the first hotels in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, opened in 1903. The hotel closed and was converted to offices in 1964. The structure was demolished in 1981. History The Alexander Young Hotel was constructed fr ...
which included a 50% pay raise and more benefits. Many workers felt the strike was a failure because the results were not immediate. It would take six months for the products of the strike to fully materialize. The strike had taken a toll on both sides; 1,000 strikers had gone back to work and more than 2,000 strikebreakers were hired. The HSPA lost $12,000,000 in potential income. Although the strike was successful, the "
Japanese Problem The Japanese Problem, also referred to as the Japanese Menace or the Japanese Conspiracy, was the name given to racial tensions in Hawaii between the European-American sugarcane plantation owners and the Japanese immigrants hired to work in the c ...
" and the "
Filipino Problem Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...
" was exposed as a larger issue than the planters realized.


References

{{reflist Filipino-American culture in Hawaii Japanese-American culture in Hawaii History of sugar History of Hawaii 1920 labor disputes and strikes 1920 Agriculture and forestry labor disputes in the United States 1920 in Hawaii