1 - American Memory
1 - American Memory
1 - American Memory
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209<br />
Mr. MATSUNAGA. Our next witness, Mr. Chairman, is the publisher<br />
of the Pacific Business News and chairman of the Chamber of Com-<br />
merce of Hawaii Ad Hoc Committee on Uninterrupted Shipping. He<br />
was founder of a citizens' organization known as STOP (Shipping<br />
Tieups Over Permanently). I am privileged to present George Mason.<br />
Mr. DiNGELL. Mr. Mason, we are certainly pleased to welcome you.<br />
If you will identify yourself fully for the record to assist our reporter,<br />
you may proceed.<br />
STATEMEIIT OF GEORGE MASON, CHAIRMAN, AD HOC COMMITTEE<br />
ON UNINTERRUPTED SHIPPING, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF<br />
HAWAII AND CHAIRMAN, STOP (SHIPPING TIEUPS OVER<br />
PERMANENTLY)<br />
Mr. MASON. Mr. Chairman, I am George Mason. I am here in the<br />
capacity of chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Uninterriipted<br />
Shipping, Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and chairman of STOP<br />
(Shipping Tieups Over Permanently). I am president of Crossroads<br />
Press, Inc., publishers of Pacific Business News and other publications.<br />
Mr. Chairman, I am a small businessman and am here primarily to<br />
represent the 13,000 small businesses in Hawaii (those with fewer<br />
than 100 employees)—almost every one of whom feels helpless in the<br />
face of frequent confrontations between employers and labor unions<br />
2,500 miles from their place of business.<br />
To illustrate how relatively helpless the vast majority of businesses<br />
in Hawaii are, I submit the following data compiled by the Bureau<br />
of the Census in March 1972 for the State of Hawaii:<br />
ltD3<br />
4 to 7<br />
8 to 19<br />
20 to 49<br />
50 to 99<br />
100 to 249<br />
250 to 499<br />
500 or more<br />
Number of<br />
employer Percent<br />
Number o( employees firms of total<br />
5,332 41.14<br />
2,778 21.43<br />
2,725 21.02<br />
1,344 10.37<br />
434 3.34<br />
245 1.89<br />
69 .53<br />
32 .24<br />
Total (222,207) 12,959 100.00<br />
Note: 100 or more employees—346 firms (2.7 percent); 20 to 99 employees—1,778 firms (13.7 percent); 1 to 19 em-<br />
ployees—10,835 firms (83.6 percent); 1 to 7 employees—8.110 firms (62.5 percent).<br />
You will note, Mr. Chairman, that 62.5 percent of all employers<br />
in Hawaii have from 1 to 7 employees and that only 346 (or 2.7 per-<br />
cent) of all employers have 100 or more workers.<br />
About one-third of all employers are in retailing. Many are mar-<br />
ginal and unable to withstand serious dislocations such as those that<br />
occur when shipping interruptions are threatened or underway.<br />
Other than the immediate effects of imminent or actual shipping<br />
tienps, there is an ever-present economic dislocation—one not easily<br />
apparent on the surface. I am referring to the constant state of prepa-<br />
ration for unexpected shipping interruptions that businesses of every<br />
size are compelled to maintain.