1 - American Memory

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the prestrike period of frantic stockpiling; and the poststrike period of
getting business back to normal and you have about 6 years of disrup-
tion due to transportation disputes—neariy one-fourth of the time
since 1946.
This unique situation has produced an illogical but understandable
reaction in the people of Hawaii. The immediate eflfect of an impend-
ing strike is panic in an otherwise gentle and reasonable people. Super-
market shelves are rapidly depleted as those who can afford it begin
hoarding the more important staples. Others who can ill afford it will
sacrifice elsewhere in order to hoard the necessities. And those who
simply cannot afford to hoard wish they could.
For example, a Kalihi laborer who earns $3,500 a year said in an
interview during the 1971 strike that he wanted to stockpile rice to
feed his wife and three children. "But I just couldn't afford it," he
said. "I live day-to-day and week-to-week. If we run out of rice, I
guess that's it. We just run out of rice."
Mr. Chairman, we haven't run out of rice yet, but the fear is real
and the fatalism of the Kalihi laborer tragic. He has no part in a dis-
pute 2,400 miles away. His only role is to suffer. Hoarding, of course,
IS foolish because it creates a false and unnecessary shortage, but the
instinct to survive appears to be stronger than good sense.
But even without hoarders, an extended series of strikes such as we
had in 1971-72 creates serious shortages. The headlines of that tintie
present a graphic picture of the situation:
MARKET SUPPLIES DEPLETED (TOILET TISSTTE, SALT,
MAYONNAISE, RICE). DOCK STRIKE CASUALTY—
OROWEAT TO CIvOSE: STRIKE CLOSES T^^'^O FFRNI-
TITRE STORES. MAT'I MOCHI PLANT HITRT BY STRIKE.
STRIKE CAUSES LAYOFFS AT TUNA PLANT. TOTI^ET
PAPER NEARLY OITT IN MATTI. WHO CAN SURVIVE
STRIKE THE CANDY MAN CANT. CHRISTMAS TREE
SHORTAGE SEEN. STATE TO PAY FOR RELIEF RICE.
It is inconvenient when you can't buy tissue paper or mayonnaise
or even salt. But it is serious when you can't buy toilet paper. It is
serious when your rice supply is low, and for the poor it is grave when
the limited supply of rice is so expensive, and you are out of a job
because the shortage of material has closed a business.
Inevitably when the supermarket shelves are low. prices rise. We
have lived for many years with the fact of the high cost of living.
We know that it is the consumer who has to pay the costs of shipping
to our island State so far from the mainland coast. We know how this
affects our housing, our clothing, our transportation, our food because
almost everything we consume is imported.
According to the Department of Labor's report on retail food
prices in the Pacific region, in June 1971, when the west coa.st strike
began, Honolulu paid 72 cents for a half-gallon of milk while Los
Angeles paid .'iS cents; chicken was 69 cents a pound in Honolulu
and 40 cents in Ix)s Angeles; lettuce was 47 cents to Los Angeles' 27
cents; and round steak, a hixurv, was $1.30 a pound to Los Angeles'
$1.26. You can see there is a great disparity in these prices.
A year and a half of strikes later, in December 1972, the report shows
that milk in Honolulu went up to 76 cents but remained unchanged