Profile of An Important Person

Carl Damaso (born Calixto Camesa) was born in the Philippines in 1917. He hailed from the town of San Felipe in the province of Zambales. He was brought over to Hawaii in 1931 to work the plantation fields at the young age of 14. There he observed the below par living conditions and meager pay of the workers, as well as the long hours and unfair treatment at the hands of the overseers.
Carl Damaso decided he would try and improve the conditions for his people so he organized a workers strike on the Big Island on the sugar plantation of Ola’a. The Filipino workers were protesting the lowering of wages and the racial discrimination that they witnessed. However, the strike was not successfully and Carl Damaso was fired and branded a “do not hire”. He moved to Maui and found a job at the Wailuku Sugar Company though he was fired for trying to start a labor union. It wasn’t until after World War II when his activism achieved success. He organized the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union.
He died on January 26, 1990.