Avelino “Abba” Ramos passed away in Richmond, CA on June 5th at the age of 78. Ramos was a dedicated unionist and organizer who gave years of service to the ILWU in Hawaii and California. When word of his death reached the 35th ILWU Convention, a moment of silence was held in his honor.
Ramos learned about fighting economic, social and racial injustice on the sugar plantations of Hawaii where both his parents labored in the 1930s and 40s. As a child, Ramos witnessed the post-War organizing efforts of the ILWU that gave a voice to many agricultural workers. Ramos was often
used as a lookout. He would stay up on the porch of the church and ring the bell if he saw any of the camp bosses approach to alert those attending union meetings.
“Workers were held hostage to the mill owners” before the organizing drives, Ramos recalls in the book Illegal People by David Bacon. “The union revolutionized the whole democratic process,” Ramos said. “Before sugar workers had a union, five families ran everything. Afterwards, every politician who wanted to run for office had to come talk to the workers, and their union decided who got elected.” Ramos graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1958—one of the first children of sugar workers to do so. He was helped along the way by the ILWU education department while living with his uncle who was a longshoreman in Honolulu. “Ah Quon McEllrath encouraged me to read. I spent hours at the ILWU library with the transcripts of the Harry Bridges hearings,” said Ramos in his oral history published in Solidarity Stories. “I met Anne Rand—the International’s archivist, not the conservative writer—who set up the library in Hawaii. These people answered my questions and opened my view politically. I got most of my education from them.”
After graduating from college, Ramos got a job at King Kamehameha, a non-union hotel, in order to help workers organize. He spent the rest of his life working for the ILWU. In 1962 he met and married Kimiyo Ramos, a music teacher and jazz singer from Nagano, Japan. They moved to Berkeley, CA in 1962 and
Ramos transferred from Hawaii to Local 6 in Oakland. Ramos was first elected shop steward at the San Francisco Grocery warehouse and later elected as a Local 6 Business Agent, where he served until he was appointed International Representative for Northern California in 1984. He also played a central role in the ILWU’s effort to help form the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, an AFL-CIO affiliate. Ramos retired in 1997 and was honored at the 30th International Convention in Honolulu with a Resolution that honored his lifetime of service to the ILWU:
“Abba played a central role in the ILWU’s participation in the formation of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. He is always ‘on the clock’ as an organizer, spreading the word about the benefits of unionization and ILWU membership to the unorganized.
Throughout his life Abba has been actively involved in the fight for justice in the Filipino community, the Philippines, and in every community in which he lived and worked. He has repeatedly shared his experience and knowledge about the labor movement, international solidarity and community activism with young people in schools, and in workplaces.”