Gabbard Meets With Displaced Maui Sugar Workers

HC&S field work, final sugar harvest. Photo credit: Chris Archer.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is on Maui today, where she is scheduled to meet with residents losing their jobs this year as a result of Alexander & Baldwin’s decision to cease sugar operations at Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company.

During her visit, she plans to listen to their concerns, discuss employment, training, education, or retirement opportunities, and offer information on Federal assistance. The congresswoman says she will also meet with leaders from ILWU Local 142 (Maui/Lānaʻi/Molokaʻi Division) to ensure the plan forward best serves the needs of Maui’s displaced sugar workers and others affected by the closure of HC&S.

In an effort to improve access to care, especially in rural areas, Rep. Gabbard will also host a Community Paramedicine Roundtable with stakeholders from Maui and across the state to learn about the challenges they face and discuss solutions to meet the needs of underserved populations.

She will also visit with police officers, fire and ambulance workers, and healthcare professionals in West Maui.

One of her stops in West Maui is to meet with patients, family members and teammates at the Rainbow Dialysis Center in Lahaina. During her visit, she will learn more about the care needed for patients living with end stage renal disease who require dialysis to survive. Congress will be considering many important public policy issues that impact kidney care and patients here in Hawaiʻi and across the United States in 2016.