Roy Takumi

     Since 1990, Roy Takumi has worked for the Hawaii State AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the state with over 70 affiliated unions representing 80,000 workers. He is currently its communications director and previously served as COPE director.
Roy was born and raised in Hawaii. His father worked for the sewer department and his mother worked as a school custodian. Both of his parents were members of AFSCME and from them he learned the value of organized labor. His mother continued to be active in her local after she retired. A product of the public schools, Roy worked since he was 15 starting off bagging groceries at $1.25 an hour.

     After graduating from high school, he joined the Hawaii Air National Guard and then attended a local community college while working full-time at Pearl Harbor as a laborer and as a member of IBEW. A life-long learner, he eventually received his master’s degree in public administration when he was 40.

     He moved to Japan when he was 24 to work as an organizer in a Korean community in Osaka. He was to stay for six years and traveled extensively throughout the region – Philippines, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong – working with community-based development projects. He also was a co-coordinator for a Vietnamese refugee project that provided refugees temporarily residing in Japan a basic survival English course to enable them to better cope with their new lives upon resettlement.
In addition to his position as the Hawaii State AFL-CIO, Roy serves as a state representative in the Hawaii Legislature.

     He was first elected 1992 and re-elected since then from the 36th District (Pearl City-Waipahu). Over the years, he has served as chair of Intergovernmental and International Affairs Committee; Ocean Recreation and Marine Resources Committee; and Higher Education Committee. He is currently serving as chair of the Education Committee and was the primary sponsor of the Reinventing Education Act of 2004. He has been the sponsor of hundreds of pro-labor bills. The past few sessions he sponsored bills on meal breaks, family and sick leave, health disclosure, minimum and living wage, and corporate accountability.

     In recognition of his efforts, Roy has received numerous awards. In 1997, he was awarded the prestigious Flemming Fellowship given to emerging political leaders in the country. In 2001, he received the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellowship for his work in connecting local and global issues. He is the first legislator from Hawaii to get both of these nationally recognized awards. He’s been recognized as a leader in education reform and received the legislator of the year award in 2004 from the Friends of the Library and the Friend of Education award from the University of Hawaii’s College of Education in 2005.

     He and his wife, Wanda, have two children and four grandchildren.