This Man Is No Island
David Trask helped bring collective bargaining to Hawaii’s public employees. Then, he went union shopping.
HONOLULU
David Trask was born on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. He grew up on an island and has lived most of his 75 years on an island. But Trask’s thinking has never been insular — he has always dreamed of bigger things for himself and his fellow Hawaiians.
After working his way through college as a member of the Sailors Union of the Pacific, he became a member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association when he took a job as a "little ole engineering aide making $172 a month" with the territorial government. Trask dreamed of being part of a larger union. Not only did he realize his dream, he brought public employees throughout the state along with him.
Trask contributed to the life of Hawaiian workers early in his career. In 1950, just two years out of college, Trask was hired as HGEA executive secretary for the islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai. He expanded the group’s traditional membership of supervisors and department heads by organizing public workers from all types of jobs. He also helped change HGEA from a loosely run association to a union ready for collective bargaining — a union ready to take its place in the House of Labor.
Trask was also active in Hawaii’s political life. In 1954, five years before statehood, Trask was part of a wave of Democratic candidates who swept into the Hawaiian House of Representatives. The Senate was taken over by Democrats two years later.
The change gave a new political focus to the state government: gone were the rich, white land-owning families who had ruled the islands for decades. Now Hawaiians of Asian Pacific descent — the population’s majority — had a choice. They demanded fairness in society and on the job. They opened the door to public employee collective bargaining.
Hawaii’s legislature is part time, so Trask continued working for HGEA. He chaired the house civil service committe and, in that capacity, was appointed to the committee on collective bargaining.
During the 1950s, AFSCME leader Jerry Wurf came to Hawaii and visited HGEA. Trask felt that becoming part of a larger union was a positive thing; HGEA Deputy Director Dan Ainoa did not. It was the start of a long-running tug of war between Ainoa and Trask that ended when Trask was fired in 1967.
He was snapped up by Gov. John Burns (D) as deputy director of personnel services and appointed to the committee established to draft a public employee collective bargaining law. "Governor Burns was pro-Labor. There was no doubt about it. He had told me, ‘We are going to have a collective bargaining law.’ It was the perfect setting for me," says Trask.
They asked Wurf to send a draft bill. "So most of the things you see that are now in the collective bargaining law came from AFSCME," he says.
Finally, HGEA was ready to change. Ainoa was retiring, and Trask replaced him. "In December 1970, the board held a meeting and told me to look to affiliation." He went shopping. At the time HGEA had 19,000 members — a good catch for any union.
With four staff members he headed off to AFSCME headquarters. "At first I was kind of scared of Jerry Wurf. He was really an intense guy. To me he was very knowledgeable and had the smarts. That’s what I was looking for: a guy who had the smarts." Trask asked to meet with AFSCME’s best local, and Wurf sent him to D.C. 37 in New York City.
"I wanted to see how D.C. 37 was set up, how they operated. Was I impressed with that council! They took me to an early meeting of blue-collar supervisors — 5:30 a.m. They took me to an early meeting of their garbage people. I went to every unit they had — evening meetings, board meetings. I said, ‘This is how I want to be.’"
After meeting with other unions, Trask recommended affiliation with AFSCME.
Over the next months Trask brought HGEA members to visit AFSCME. He fondly recalls Minnesota AFSCME’s Father Albert Blatz, an International vice president whose warm and inclusive manner made the HGEA members feel right at home.
On April 24, 1971, HGEA was chartered as AFSCME Local 152. Its sister union, United Public Workers became AFSCME Local 646. AFSCME’s Hawaiian membership neared 28,000.
A scant three years later, in June 1974, HGEA and UPW hosted their first AFSCME International Convention. Today AFSCME Hawaii has grown to 35,000 members and is preparing to welcome the AFSCME International Convention back to the island state in August.
Trask is pleased with the union’s growth. Now retired, with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren surrounding him, Trask thinks back to the contributions he made to Hawaii’s public employees. Today, a "little ole engineering aide" starts at $1,447 a month with regular raises and step increases.
Thanks in large part to his work, they have full collective bargaining, and they are part of the AFSCME family — America’s largest public employee and health care union.
Living on an island, Trask built a bridge to the rest of America.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
