About Bob

Bob Hasegawa is a longtime labor and social justice activist from Seattle and is completing his third term in the Washington State House of Representatives as a voice for working families, small businesses and disenfranchised communities.

As a 32 year Teamster, Bob worked his way up through the ranks from worker, to shop steward, to regional organizer, and ultimately winning election to become the principle executive officer of the largest Teamsters trucking local workers union in the Pacific Northwest (Teamsters Local 174), a position he held for nearly a decade.  Bob was also a leader in the national Teamsters pro-union democracy reform movement, TDU (Teamsters for a Democratic Union).

In his capacity as Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters Local 174 he successfully restructured and transformed the organization from a dysfunctional, dying organization into one of the most powerful, respected and honorable in our community, drawing praise from all sectors of the community, including the business community for our integrity.  He led many workers struggles winning top wages and benefits for working families and retirees, and he collaborated in many social justice struggles to protect civil rights, democracy, the environment, and our constitutional rights.

Bob was lead negotiator for hundreds of contracts worth billions of dollars for thousands of members winning the top wages and benefits in the country.  He negotiated with small mom & pop companies as well as major multinational corporations such as Boeing, Safeway, Waste Management, BNSF Railroad, Associated General Contractors, Glacier Northwest (Taihaiyo Cement), and United Parcel Service where he served on the lead national negotiations covering over 220,000 employees.

Bob has long sought to build bridges between social justice organizations in order to build a stronger collective voice and has brought that perspective to the organizations he has served which include:  Executive Board of the King County Labor Council, national Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA) Executive Board as well as on the APALA Seattle Chapter Executive Board, Jobs with Justice Workers' Rights Board, Center for Social Justice, Japanese American Citizens League.  Bob continues his involvement with the labor movement by serving on the Boards of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, and the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington.

Bob believes in lifelong learning.  He graduated from Antioch University with dual areas of concentration in Labor Relations and Organizational and Social Change.  He also holds an AA degree in Labor Studies which he earned at Shoreline Community College, is a seasoned professional commercial truck driver, a certified transit operator, and a journey-level operating engineer.  Bob also holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.

Bob is a closet “techie” having studied physics at the University of Washington before we decided he could make more money as a working Teamster.  He boasts of having been a Macintosh advocate since the introduction of the revolutionary machine back in 1984.  “Its amazing what those little machines could do back then with only 128k RAM,” says Hasegawa.  “They were an organizer’s dream with the ability to crank out leaflets and fliers just with a thought.”  Bob studied Information Technology at Seattle Central Community College where he is just one class shy of another AA degree.  "I believe in lifelong learning, plus those classes satisfied my techie needs," Hasegawa says with a smile.

Bob is also a not-so-closet "trekkie."  He's credited with being the first legislator to speak Klingon on the House floor during his floor speech to pass his bill requesting Congress and the President to donate one of the two retiring space shuttles to the Museum of Flight in our 11th District.

Bob Hasegawa is currently a member of the Operating Engineers Union Local 612 and is a heavy construction equipment operator where he says he “loves playing in the dirt with big boy tonka toys.”