Officially organized on November 4, 2004 as Hawaii Injured Workers Association when over 50 concerned citizens of the state met, drafted and approved a charter. The now Hawai'i Injured Workers Association (HIWA) was formed on the example of parallel organizations across the U.S. and Canada. Like its many sister organizations, HIWA was formed to give voice to the many people and groups who feel they and the injured workers they support are being abused and victimized by a growing political agenda that has lost concern and compassion for the real victims of industrial injury, the workers.

Business, corporations and insurers dominate and control testimony at the State Capitol these days. Balance is gone when injured workers are afraid to testify for fear of retaliation. (Hawaii law has no protection for workers who testify against their employers' positions.)

Legislators who have tried to express the injured workers' perspectives are vilified in the media as anti-business. We believe it should not be considered anti-business to treat injured workers fairly and compassionately. After all, the sooner an injured worker can be rehabilitated and returned to the workplace, the better for business in general.

We want positive change. We seek ways to heal and rehabilitate injured workers with all due speed. And, we plead with legislators and the media to endorse workers' compensation reform that, first and foremost, does no harm to injured workers!