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The Enduring Legacy of Asian American Pacific Islander Workers and Union Leaders
… part of the tapestry of our labor history, though their stories are not well celebrated. From the sugar fields of Hawai’i to the California coast where the Transcontinental Railroad originated to the grape fields in Delano, California, employers … think they often had to overcome cultural and language barriers to find commonality with others—and all in a time when the right to organize was not well protected. There are countless stories of untold heroism in this history. Native Hawaiian … the first general strike by native laborers in the Hawaiian Islands in 1841 because they rejected the western concept of work and being paid in scrip. Five thousand Chinese workers staged a strike covering 30 miles of rail in 1867. There’s the …