1 - American Memory

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work. On January 17,1972, the strike was resumed after expiration of
the 80-day cooling-off period and after failure to reach a new contract.
This walkout continued for 34 days. On October 8, 1972, a Hawaiian
ITJA^TJ unit of maintenance, container freight and security workers
struck after failing to get a new contract and were out 59 hours. On
October 25. 1972, the Masters, Mates and Pilots Union struck the
Pacific Maritime Association. This strike lasted 41 days. And on
December 5, 1972, the same union halted operations of Seatrain Lines
California in Oakland and ordered picketing of the company's ships
in Hawaii.
The possibility of further strikes is also very imminent. On July 1,
1975. there will be another contract reopening on both the west coast
and Hawaii docks and current signs give no indication that Hawaii
will not experience another shipping interruption.
With the exception of the two-day local dispute these interruptions
were entirely outside of Hawaii's jurisdiction. Shipping to Hawaii
was curtailed by longshore and maritime disputes on the mainland.
Needless to say, sjich interruptions have had an adverse effect on our
total economy. It is ironic that such interruptions do not affect the
mainland States as much as they do Hawaii, which depends so
heavily on ocean shipping for our people's basic needs. This is not to
overlook the economic effects on the export businesses on the mainland,
including the inland farmers who need to have their products moved
to overseas consumers to continue viable operations. The important
point is that basic mainland supplies to Hawaii are put off whenever
a maritime dispute occurs on the west coast.
The effects and impact of these strikes, besides causing specific hard-
ships to both labor and management, have extended to tnird parties
including the entire population and business community of the State
and have included among other factors—higher consumer prices, lack
of supplies, uncertain markets, unemployment, business failures and
loss of output. During the 1971 strike Hawaii's ex*onomy suffered a
$153.6 million loss of output and a 2.36-percent increase in prices.
In examining the impact of 1971's strikes, we find that the economy
weathered the interniptions only because it was in good shape when
the strike began. The strike did result in increased unemployment and
prices. It did produce slowdowns in industries where there were short-
ages of key supplies or it was not possible to import or export by air.
Many small businesses that did not or could not air cargo were par-
ticularly hard hit.
In the case of sugar, pineapple, and diversified agriculture, the op-
portunity to switch from suriace-to-air cargo was unavailable because
of the cost factors involved. Firms in both industries had difficulty
in getting their products to the mainland. The volume of raw sugar
producea was greater than that of the previous year. Unfortunately,
the dock strike prevented most of the raw sugar produced after July
from reaching t)ie Crockett refinery with the result that it had to be
shut down for a time during the strike.
The pineapple industry was also adversely affected. The dock strike
came during the peak canning season and the industry was unable
to ship its products to the mainland markets until October. Thus,
most of the production for the year had to be stored in Hawaii for a
couple of months, at additional cost of pineapple firms.