by Raymund Liongson It was a Monday morning, September 23, 2024.
Nurses at the Kapiolani Medical Center staged a demonstration in protest of their illegal and morally indefensible lockout by the hospital management.
That was the tenth day the Hawaii Pacific Health (HPH) prevented them from doing the work they love —i.e., providing the best nursing care to their patients.
That same day, ten members of the community, all coming from different sectors — decided to join the demonstration to support the Hawaii Nurses Association (HNA). We had retirees, labor activists, academics, lawyers, and yes, even legislators —in many cases, a crisscross of these capacities.
The group included veteran activists John Witeck and Lori Treschuk; labor leader Sergio Alcubilla and Yoko Liriano; University of Hawaii professors Kyle Kajihiro and Nadine Ortega; church leader and community organizer Cassie Chee; State Representative-elect Kim Coco Iwamoto; and legislative candidate Ikaika Hussey.
I am honored to be part of the protesting group.
These community protesters — now referred to as “Kapiolani 10” — have decided to send a strong message to the hospital management and HPH that the community is standing with the nurses and demanded that the retaliatory lockout be ended.
By 8:00 that Monday morning, two tourist buses were arriving carrying scabs. That is when we moved to block the driveway, effectively obstructing two scab buses from entering the hospital compound. We were aware that for as long as there were scabs, the illegal retaliatory lockout could go on indefinitely.
We want to make it clear, however, that contrary to the insinuation or claim of the hospital management, neither of the demonstrating nurses nor the Kapiolani-10 obstructed any patient, their families, or hospital vehicles like ambulances.
In fact, the locked-out nurses were ushering and helping patients get through the crowd and into the hospital facility. They were there ready and eager to get back to work and provide quality nursing care to their patients.
What Kapiolani-10 obstructed was injustice and corporate greed. What Kapiolani-10 did was demonstrate the community’s strong support for the locked-out nurses.
It was a peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience demanding that people are placed first before profits.
The demonstrating nurses and Kapiolani-10 did not disrupt health care delivery. It was the hospital management that disrupted the delivery of quality nursing care by unreasonably and illegally locking out their regular nurses.So, we sat firm across the driveway. Then Hawaii Police Department cops began arriving.
By 8:30 am, we were warned to break the barricade or face arrest. The warning was echoed twice more, but it only cemented our resolve to keep the “barikada.”
Our chants got louder: “END THE LOCKOUT NOW!” “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!” HNA! HNA! HNA!
We were given our last ten minutes, which was extended to another ten minutes. Then the final arrests began. One after the other, we were cuffed and loaded into the police paddy wagon — the five women on one side, and the five men on the other, separated by a solid walling in between.
For some good reason, I felt no fear during the arrest. We were arrested by police officers who were, to my assessment, courteous and polite — one of them even saying: “I am sorry, sir, we are just doing our job. But we have nurses in my family, too.”
They were short of saying, we understand why you are doing this. I thought that was a loaded and powerful statement.
Where I came from (in the Philippines), labor protesters may be confronted by rough cops or horrible armed goons. And when they cart you away, you can fear that you might not see the light again.
I also remembered that on that very same day 52 years ago, on September 23, 1972, martial law took effect in my homeland, and we were pursued by the military by order of a strong man who wanted to cling to power for the rest of his life. That dreadful nostalgia would be another story.
At the police station, we were searched, booked, photographed, and fingerprinted. Then we were separately locked in a 20’ x 10’ cell — the five men together in one cell, and the five women together in the adjacent cell, separated by a solid concrete wall.
We stayed in jail for over three hours until our bail was processed. Our arraignment is on October 22. We do not know what’s going to happen by then.
The community arrest and detention generated a tidal wave of awareness of the nurses’ plight. The very next day, the governor finally intervened and made the HPH and HNA agree to enter into federal mediation.
Nine days later, HNA announced that Kapi’olani nurses won a monumental agreement that includes the first contractually enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios in Hawaii’s history.
You may ask: why did we do what we did? And why am I sharing all these details?
The short answer is that we — you and I — the community, have a role to play in creating a better world and a brighter future. This is mostly true with you, the young blood — from the millennials to the Gen Zs and the younger generations.
I shared some details of a recent struggle to provide you with an illustrative narrative of what it may cost to take a stand.
Let us not forget that our valued ideals are not free; they can be costly and we have to be prepared to pay the price.
There is an old song “No Man Is An Island” (1965). The lyrics goes:
No man is an island No man stands alone, Each man’s joy is joy to me, Each man’s grief is my own.
This echoes an ancient African philosophy — ubuntu — which is a reminder that “I am what I am because of who we all are”. It is a concept of common humanity and oneness and is integral to many sub-Saharan African cultures.
The “barikada” or human barricade staged by Kapiolani-10 was an elevated community response.
It also underscores that we are part of one social system where an “injury to one is an injury to all.” That we have a responsibility to stand with and defend those who are treated unjustly.
Unprecedented as it is, the lockout should teach us that such illegal and morally indefensible labor assault on nurses can happen to anyone. It can happen to any one of us.
The nurses’ lockout was only part of the matrix of corporate control and unjust machination. In other labor disputes elsewhere, intimidation, harassment, termination, assault, and other horrible acts are employed.
Corporate greed and insatiable power are the roaring demons in our society today. And the parties controlling these demons want to extract more from society — from all of us, thus putting profits over people. It is the desire for immense wealth and power that lead them to devaluating labor and workers.
But the issues facing our population are more than labor issues. There are forces assaulting our basic human and civil rights — our humanity.
Across the nation, certain sectors are being robbed of their voting rights; immigrants are demeaned and vilified; women are denied their right to decide for their bodies; science is dismissed while unfounded conspiracy theories are promoted; critical books are banned; cultish and violent behavior is normalized . . . and the list goes on.
And beyond our shores? Murderous thirst for power. Displacement of people. Brute force. Genocide. And in our ancestral land — corruption has shamelessly become a normal part of life.
Meanwhile, the extra-judicial killings of tens of thousands of Filipinos remain tragically unresolved. The injustice is stunning.
So, how do we — as a community, as citizens — defend ourselves? What is the role of the community in these struggles?
Collective response is our only defense — our collective voice, our collective energies, our collective acts. This is why big corporations do not like unions. This is also why they fear a united labor force — a united community, a united public.
This is why we, the public, witnessing corporate oppression against workers must come together and stand with the workers — this time, with the hotel workers in Waikiki and all the working class. This is why we — the community, you and I — must join hands and expose and actively resist injustice in all its forms.
It is you and I — all of us — standing to injustice, xenophobia, misogyny, and corporate greed.
It is you and I — all of us — standing for truth, justice, and common sense who can create a better world and a brighter future.
This is our collective defensive weapon. And this is where the real power of a nation and the real power of a people lies.
RAYMUND LLANES LIONGSON, PHD is a retired professor from the UH-Leeward CC and a former member of the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission. He is a member of the Hawaii Filipinos for Truth, Justice and Democracy and a past president of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association of Hawaii.
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