Note: This is part of my Weekly Wednesday AQ Wisdom special series. To see other posts in the series, click on the Best Bets tab at the top of any page here and scroll down to the “AQ McElrath” section.
Part Two: AQ’s Career at ILWU
Ah Quon did volunteer support work for ILWU members during the 1946 sugar strike which involved 26,000 workers and tens of thousands of their family members.
In 1945, the dry-dock and pineapple workers voted to affiliate with the ILWU as Local 150 and Bob was named the information director of the ILWU. Bob McElrath ran the union’s radio program, negotiated contracts, and was appointed as the ILWU’s Regional Director in 1969 when Jack Hall was elected as the International ILWU vice-president. Bob McElrath reitred in 1978 and passed away in 1995.
Ah Quon did volunteer support work for ILWU members during hte 1946 sugar strike which involved 26,000 workers and tens of thousands of their family members. She helped survey and assess members’ needs, helped organize union soup kitchen to provide thousands of balanced and nutritional meals, and helped members with a wide variety of medical and social problems. The successful organization of sugar workers, based on racial unity, laid the foundation for Hawaii to evolve into a modern, democratic society.
Ah Quon continued her work with the union during the 1947 pineapple lockout and again in 1949 during the longshore strike. When, amidst anti-community hysteria of the 1950s, the “Hawaii 7″ defendants were accused in a Smith Act case of teaching the overthrow of the government by force and violance, Ah Quon was the office manager for their defense. This, in fact, was an attempt to break the ILWU, but failed.
In 1954, the ILWU finally started paying Ah Quon for her work and hired her to provide social services to union members, mostly immigrants. She helped them with the medical and helath benefits they received as a collectively bargained benefit. She also worked iwth the union’s growing elderly population of single, Filipino plantation workers, helping many of them return to the Philippines when they retired.
Ah Quon believed in training and developing union members to help themselves and their fellow workers. She worked with the ILWU’s membership service committees composed of worker volunteers who would counsel other workers and refer them to appropriate social agencies.
Please visit next Wednesday as I continue with AQ’s story, from 1981.
Mahalo!
