As the rain drizzled down on a humid afternoon, former Times Supermarket employees carried banners reading “Unfair to Workers” on Liliha Street. With support from the Hawai‘i Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, the workers who were laid off earlier this year asked rush-hour traffic commuters, this past Monday, to boycott the 75-year-old supermarket chain in order to send a message to its corporate owners, PAQ Inc., that they were not going to leave without a fair deal.

Nearly a year after Times employees first walked the picket lines in protest of layoffs, medical coverage cuts for employees on long-term medical leave, and a guaranteed 40-hour work week, workers like former deli clerk Janice Nielson are still unemployed.

“We’ll keep boycotting until whatever time it takes,” said Ms. Nielson, who had worked at Times for nearly four decades. “We’d like to be put back on the table, but I’m not sure how long it’s going to take.”

The former Times workers argue that layoffs of veteran and unionized employees by PAQ, Inc. last year was the result of putting profit for the employer at the expense of the employees. Following the workers’ strike last January, Times eliminated the position of full-time deli clerk. Boycotters said that although the position was eliminated, the newly-named clerks perform the same duties for less pay and benefits.

In 2002, Quinn Supers, Inc., headed by president John Quinn, acquired Times from the Teruya family, who had been running the supermarket chain in Hawai‘i since 1949. Quinn Supers, Inc. is a subsidiary of PAQ, Inc., which also operates supermarkets throughout California.

“John Quinn came with the purpose of getting rid of us [unionized employees],” Ms. Nielson said. “This is not ‘ohana.”

Hawai‘i Teamsters vice president Bernard Nunies said Mr. Quinn had not been cooperative in communicating with Times workers and did not meet in person with Teamster president Ron Kozuma who had flown to California to discuss workers’ concerns.

Since the strike last year, Mr. Quinn has not changed his position on eliminating the full-time deli clerk position or on rehiring other former employees.

Mr. Quinn did not respond to calls from The Hawai‘i Independent.

In October, the National Labor Relations Board dismissed a complaint against Times put forward by the Hawai‘i Teamsters and Local 996. The charges included an improper withdrawal of union recognition from Local 996 and objections to what the union considered as unfair to workers, including the manipulation of employee actions and employee intimidation by management.

The focus of BoycottTimes.com supporters now is on getting former Times employees who are still unemployed a place back at the counter.

“We want for [Quinn] to understand he needs to focus on bringing these people back who don’t have jobs,” Mr. Nunies said. “The union is willing to meet with the owner more than half way.”

As the new year begins, former Times employees will continue to reach out to the community for support of its boycott and continue searching for work during difficult economic times.

Best wishes from the staff of The Hawaii Independent.

Honolulu residents gathered in front of the US Federal Building yesterday to call for an end to the attacks in Gaza.

Boasting activist lyrics on par with The Coup and Dead Prez and soulful beats like a West Coast equivalent of Pete Rock and early A Tribe Called Quest, Blue Scholars have carved out a distinct place among underground hip-hop. Hailing from Seattle, Washington, the duo have forgone the entrapments of major record label politics in favor the do-it-yourself, grassroots spirit that their music advocates. What else could be expected from a group whose name is a reference to both the working class and those who seek to enlightenment?

After a successful trio of Hawai‘i stops last July, including an all-ages show at the University of Hawai‘i and an appearance at the Bring the Noise fundraiser for Youth Speaks Hawai‘i, the Scholars are returning to the islands for a New Year’s Eve concert at Pipeline Café.

Over the course of two full-length albums and 3 EPs, the pair has painted vivid portraits of people and subjects largely ignored in American music: from the plight of immigrants to a personal account of the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization. Rapper Geologic, the son of Filipino immigrants, dedicates his lyrics to taking on social and political issues with the perspective of someone raised in the working class and the flair of one brought up through poetry slams. Producer/DJ Sabzi, of Iranian descent, crafts solid, head-nodding hip-hop beats with the ear of a jazz pianist. Their most recent full length album, Bayani (a combination of the Tagalog word meaning “heroes of the people” and the Persian “Bayan” meaning “the word”), has spawned three music videos: “Back Home,” calling for support of the troops by ending the war, “Joe Metro,” a salute to the local bus service and those who ride on it, and “Loyalty,” a thank you note to their fans and affirmation of past and future action. Read More

From the BBC:

Foreign ministers from the countries of the Middle East Quartet have called for an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza and southern Israel.

The Quartet, comprising four major world powers, was established in 2002 to implement a Middle East peace process.

Ms. Navi Pillay, the UN human rights high commissioner, released a statement yesterday expressing her grave concern and distress at the enormous loss of life in the escalating violence in Gaza. While condemning the rocket attacks by Hamas that led to the death of one Israeli civilian, she also strongly condemned Israel’s disproportionate use of force resulting in the reported death of more than 270, a large number of which were civilians, and the wounding of over 600 persons.  She called on Israel ’s leaders to uphold international humanitarian law principles, especially those relating to proportionality in the use of military force and the prevention of collective punishment and the targeting of civilians.

She also called on Israel to lift the air, sea and ground blockade it is imposing on the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and to allow humanitarian assistance and independent outside monitoring, including by the UN Special Rapportuer on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel since 1967.  The High Commissioner voiced her strong support for the Secretary General and the UN Security Council’s statements calling for an immediate halt to all violence by both sides, and urged all parties to promptly take steps to end the human suffering in Gaza.

Similarly, while Native Hawaiians, like other wronged and displaced peoples, have strong moral claims on the political branches of government for recompense, the courts have no role to play in determining whether Congress should have made different or additional provision for Native Hawaiians to compensate them for their grave losses. If “[g]enerous provision has been willingly made to allow [indigenous peoples] to recover for wrongs” perpetrated by the United States, it has been “as a matter of grace, not because of legal liability.”

—Brief for Petitioners, State of Hawai‘i, et al. v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, et al., p. 45, citing Tee-Hit-Ton Indians, 348 U.S. at 281-282.

On selling ceded lands

The brief filed by Attorney General Mark Bennett in the state’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court from transferring or selling ceded lands has caused much anger among Hawaiians. The appeal seeks to overturn a Hawai‘i Supreme Court ruling temporarily barring the state from transferring or selling ceded lands. A reading of the brief illustrates the state’s acknowledgement that while wrongs have been committed against Native Hawaiians in the past, history is no protection against the superior power of the government to steal, coerce and oppress.

It should strike people as ironic that a Governor who helped to make “Shaloha” a byword of Jewish identification with Hawai‘i—as a place of diversity and acceptance and a place where Jewish people belonging to the synagogue community, Temple Emanu-El, might “pursue social justice”—could take responsibility for an administrative statement that quite plainly and banally states that Hawaiians, while having a moral right to their lands, do not have a legal right to the ownership of those lands. Read More

In the land where Christmas was born, an economic revival is afoot. “But we are still under occupation,” said Victor Batarseh, mayor of Bethlehem, according to the New York Times.

Both Israeli and Palestinian officials report economic growth for the occupied areas of 4 to 5 percent and a drop in the unemployment rate of at least three percentage points. The Israelis report that in 2008, wages here are up more than 20 percent and trade by 35 percent. The improved climate has nearly doubled the number of tourists in Bethlehem and increased them by half in Jericho.

From the New York Times, more signs of the recession’s depth and breadth.

On Monday, Toyota said it expected an operating loss in its auto operations of 150 billion yen, or $1.7 billion, for the fiscal year ending March 31. That would be the company’s first annual operating loss since 1938, a year after the company was founded, and a huge reversal from the 2.3 trillion yen, or $28 billion, in operating profit earned last year.