Terri Mast is an activist and labor leader from Seattle. She was involved in 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.
Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes were Filipino-American activists and union reformers. They 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 Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes 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.
In this image, Mast speaks at a memorial service one year after Domingo and Viernes were murdered. Terri Mast is Silme Domingo’s widow. At the time of the service, the investigation was ongoing. Mast said that fear was mixed with hope, and that union reforms begun by Domingo and Viernes were continuing. The podium is decorated with a painting of Silme Domingo (left), Gene Viernes (right), and quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
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 Caption information source: “Probes Slowed by a fear of ‘Tulisan’ gang,” by Eric Nalder, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 13, 1982, page F15.
