Terri Mast is an activist and labor leader from Seattle. She was involved in the antiwar and women’s rights movements, and was an important figure in the Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP). She helped start the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes (CJDV) and led the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 37. As of 2022, Mast is secretary-treasurer of the Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific.
In this image, Terri Mast holds her daughter Kalayaan while speaking as vice-president of the Local 37 and a member of the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes (CJDV). Mast is the widow of Silme Domingo, who was Kalayaan’s father. Mast was calling for charges to be brought against ousted union official Constantine Baruso in the murders of Filipino-American activists and union reform leaders Silme Domingo (b. 1952) and Gene Viernes (b. 1951). Domingo and Viernes were murdered in Seattle on June 1, 1981, at the offices of Local 37 of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU). Two gunmen were immediately captured, and the murders were originally thought to be an isolated act of violence. However, a decade long investigation spurred on by the CJDV showed that the murders were political assassinations with far-reaching connections. Constantine "Tony" Baruso (1928-2008), a former ILWU Local 37 president, was later convicted of organizing the killings at the order of corrupt Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989) in retaliation for the victims' anti-Marcos organizing through the Seattle chapter of Union of Democratic Filipinos (KDP). The investigation also proved that the US government knew about the assassinations and shielded the Marcos dictatorship from accountability.
Caption information source: “Union leader asks why no FBI action on cannery gambling,” by Eric Nalder, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 6, 1982, page 31 Caption information source: Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, University of Washington, retrieved from https://labor.washington.edu/people/terri-mast Caption information source: The Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, University of Washington, retrieved from https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/cindy_domingo.htm
