BY ELIZABETH STONE AND MARY MARTIN

CHICAGO - Delegates at the national convention of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), held here September 22-28, heard seven days of proceedings emphasizing two intertwined themes: reelecting U.S. president William Clinton and consolidating approval for the merger of the IAM with the United Steelworkers Union of America (USWA) and the United Auto Workers (UAW).

Each morning politicians, government officials, and labor tops gave speeches entreating the unionists to return Clinton to the White House. Speakers at the convention included AFL-CIO president John Sweeney; the labor federation's secretary- treasurer Richard Trumka; U.S. labor secretary Robert Reich; UAW president Stephen Yokich; USWA president George Becker; Sen. Edward Kennedy; Representatives Jesse Jackson Jr. and Richard Gephardt; Coalition of Labor Union Women president Gloria Johnson; Canadian Labour Congress president Robert White; and Marcello Malentacchi, general secretary of the Metalworkers union in Switzerland. Clinton also addressed the convention through a special satellite hook up.

Sweeney's comments on the presidential elections were repeated by all speakers in one fashion or another. "Robert Dole is an anti-worker candidate," Sweeney said. "Think like workers, vote like workers, get others to vote like workers, and we will have a workers' victory in November."

There was nearly no mention whatsoever of Clinton's role in leading government inroads against workers' social gains - such as signing the welfare bill - and attacking democratic rights and the rights of immigrants, let alone his war record, such as the recent bombing of Iraq.

Several debates reflected the concern of many delegates about how to counter the offensive by the employers, who increasingly seek to lower wages, drive through job combinations, use more part-time workers who don't receive benefits, and subcontract out jobs. Machinists who had participated in strikes in the past months at Boeing Corp. in Seattle and at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis were among those who took to the microphones early and often.

Top officials motivated a proposal to allocate more union membership dues for operations - including the union's facility for training union functionaries at Placid Harbor, Maryland - and less to the strike fund. About a third of the delegates dissented on the basis that money would be needed for future battles. Many of the same delegates later pushed unsuccessfully to raise strike benefits from $100 to $150 per week. Jim Marshall, a delegate from Local 837-A in St. Louis, spoke on that point. "As one who has seen the pain and suffering experienced by many of our members in the recent 99-day strike against McDonnell Douglas, including loss of homes and cars and effect on families, I want to explain something," he said. "In the era of today in corporate America, things aren't getting better. It's a very hard-nosed situation. When people... have to strike, they need to have enough money to help them survive."

The IAM leadership also put forward a resolution reaffirming support to High Performance Work Organizations (HPWOs) on the job. These are company-union cooperation programs initiated by the IAM international in several workplaces in North America.

Dick Doyle, a delegate from Local S-6 in Bath, Maine and works at Bath Iron Shipbuilding, told Militant reporters he was against the HPWOs. Bath Iron Shipbuilding is touted as a flagship of the HPWO by the IAM tops. "HPWO pits union brothers and sisters against each other," Doyle said. "The membership gets engulfed in company functions and the contract becomes a blank check for management to fill out how they want."

Keith Nelson, a TWA plant maintenance mechanic and delegate from Local 1650 in Kansas City, spoke on the floor against the HPWOs. "At TWA we have so-called `world class maintenance groups,' " he said. "These workers are volunteers and include `wannabé supervisors. They are supposed to stay out of contractual issues and not act on them, but they do." A majority of the delegates, however, voted to support the HPWOs. Ron Delapp, a delegate from Local 760 in International Falls, Minnesota, who works as Boise Cascade Co., said, "I think HPWO is a good thing. We can sit down with the company, discuss problems, and work them out. There is no problem with that."

Collections were taken up for the Al Atalia airline workers, now in the third year of their strike, and for the 60 Machinists of Local 1005 in Portland, Oregon, on strike for nine months against Voith-Sulzer Paper Technology Company. A delegate from Continental Airlines flight attendants who are in the midst of an IAM organizing drive received applause when he called on delegates to support the drive.

Kate DeSmet, a striking newspaper worker from Detroit, received a standing ovation when she addressed the convention. She said if the companies can defeat the newspaper workers' unions in Detroit, the labor movement across the country will suffer. Discussions on airline safety, merger
While there was no official discussion at the convention of recent airline accidents and their impact on airline workers, there was informal discussion in the corridors.

One of the Chicago delegates, Roy Wilson, an aircraft mechanic at Northwest Airlines, received congratulations in the hallways from other delegates who had seen him interviewed recently on ABC News in Chicago. Wilson had refused to check for bombs under new Federal Aviation Administration and company demands on airline workers, following the explosion of TWA Flight 800. In the TV interview he had stated he was not qualified to search for bombs and that spending time on such activity would interfere with his maintenance duties. Initially suspended from his job after he spoke out to the press, Wilson was later reinstated.

Another substantial discussion ensued under a proposal for how the vote will be taken on the merger of the IAM with the UAW and USWA, set for the year 2000. The leadership proposed the decision be made by delegates at the next IAM Grand Lodge Convention. Many delegates, who often began their remarks by expressing support for the merger, argued the decision should be made by the entire membership of the union, that is, one member- one vote as a more democratic way of deciding. The majority voted to have the decision made by delegates at the next convention.

Mary Martin is a member of IAM Local 1759 at Northwest Airlines in Washington, D.C. Elizabeth Stone is a member of IAM Local 1487 at United Airlines in Chicago.  
 
 
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