Dwight Takamine

The state’s labor director wants to develop agriculture jobs and rebuild safety agency

By Vicki Viotti

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Aug 31, 2012

~~<p>Dwight Takamine has worked other sides of the labor equation so it surprises few that 20 months ago he landed the job as the director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. He is a labor attorney, chaired committees on labor in his 24-year tenure in the state House of Representatives and his two years in the state Senate.</p>
<p>The Laupahoehoe-raised Takamine, now 59, has seen a lot of labor turmoil on his home turf, and has stood in the thick of it. As part of the transition of Hamakua Sugar Co. employees to other lines of work, Takamine has backed ideas such as the Tradewinds Forest Products eucalyptus plantation, which has begun harvesting, and a plywood mill, an idea that met with opposition.</p>
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Dwight Takamine has worked other sides of the labor equation so it surprises few that 20 months ago he landed the job as the director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. He is a labor attorney, chaired committees on labor in his 24-year tenure in the state House of Representatives and his two years in the state Senate.

The Laupahoehoe-raised Takamine, now 59, has seen a lot of labor turmoil on his home turf, and has stood in the thick of it. As part of the transition of Hamakua Sugar Co. employees to other lines of work, Takamine has backed ideas such as the Tradewinds Forest Products eucalyptus plantation, which has begun harvesting, and a plywood mill, an idea that met with opposition. Login for more...