Rationalization of Sugar Production in Hawaii, 1946-1960: A Dimension of the Class Struggle

Abstract

Sugar plantation workers in Hawaii were not organized into labor unions until after the Second World War. Prior to this, labor was plentiful and cheap, and the sugar industry was labor-intensive. Unionization drove up the cost of labor and brought with it the rationalization of production and a significant occupational upgrading of the labor force. This case study questions the assumption that rationalization of production is primarily a management-initiated move to increase control over workers and that it inevitably results in the deskilling and degradation of the labor force. We argue that rationalization of production must be analyzed as one aspect of the continuing class struggle with the nature of its outcomes determined by the specifics of a given historical context.

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