Labor champion
Trask succumbs
to cancer

Under his leadership,
the ILWU played a big role
in agriculture and tourism

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

He was a smooth operator with a soft touch -- not what you might expect in someone at the helm of one of Hawaii's most powerful labor unions.

But Tommy Trask, the veteran organizer, left his mark on the International Longshore and Warehousemen's Union, and on Hawaii.

"We was one of the best labor people to ever come out of Hawaii," said John Radcliff, head of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly.

"He was low-key and he was honest. He had an ability to work with everybody.

"He had credibility with everybody."

Trask died Saturday at his home after a bout with cancer. He was 68.

"He was most proud of being on the side of both the worker and management," said his wife, Jo Anne Trask. "He was a real fair man."

Trask retired in 1994 as head of the ILWU.

His union career spanned 43 years.

One of his biggest challenges was hanging on to benefits for the ILWU rank and file at a time when the sugar and pineapple industries were dying out.

"His ability to work with management to protect his workers during these difficult times was probably the hallmark of what he did," Radcliff said.

Watching the slow demise of Hawaii's big agriculture industries, Trask deftly shifted to the waterfront and tourism.

Schooled by the late Jack Hall, Trask began organizing white-collar and tourism workers in 1961.

He later served as an overseas delegate to New Zealand and Australia in 1963.

Trask held a powerful weapon -- the ability to tie up the waterfront -- but he found other ways to win benefits for his union members.

"Tommy Trask is one of the many great ILWU leaders who did so much for working people in Hawaii," said Russell Okata, head of the Hawaii Government Employees Association and an early protege.

"Workers have dignity because he worked so hard to shape the social, educational, health and employment values for our state."

He was ILWU regional director from 1977 to his 1994 retirement.

Along the way, his community service included time on the Judicial Selection Commission, Aloha United Way board of directors, Waterfront Development Steering Committee and Aloha Tower Development Corp.

Low-key and nonconfrontational, he proved that labor leaders don't need to be wedded to sound and fury to be successful, even though he was a first cousin of the more volatile Trasks -- David K. Jr., Arthur and Bernard.

Honolulu-born and a 1947 St. Louis High School graduate, he went to work for the union full time in 1961.

Before that he was a Dole Cannery employee, becoming a journeyman electrician. A good athlete and star softball pitcher, he was drawn to union activity through the ILWU sports program.

He served as a shop steward, then unit chairman for five years. By 1960 he was on the pineapple negotiating committee.

In his retirement he did what he loved most, "Golf, golf and golf," said Jo Anne Trask.

"He also spent time with his pride and joy, his dog Taisho, an overweight Manchester terrier."

Trask was also known for his sense of humor, she said. "Even to the end he made us laugh."

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Star-Bulletin reporter Lori Tighe
contributed to this report