The 472 delegates decided to suspend the normal order of business on August 21 so that the convention could participate in a scheduled Teamsters solidarity rally - one of 30 planned in cities around the country. In the intervening two days, a tentative settlement was reached between the Teamsters and UPS, and the rally was canceled.

In the opening presentation to the convention, OCAW president Robert Wages described the worsening conditions facing workers. "These are the toughest times in decades, with unprecedented attacks on workers and the working class as a whole. Corporate profits and productivity are up, and real wages are down. Corporate downsizing is leading to environmental degradation, health and safety problems, and job insecurity," he said.

Offensive by employers
One example of this offensive is the assault on oil workers by Tosco Corp. In Pennsylvania and California, Tosco purchased refineries, slashed the union work force, and began forcing operators to do maintenance work. When workers in their Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, refinery tried to resist, Tosco shut down the plant until the union agreed to the onerous working conditions and layoffs. In California Tosco's proposals were passed by union members by a narrow margin. No report or discussion on this experience was presented at the convention.

Workers at Crown Petroleum in Houston, who have been locked out for 18 months, had a table at the convention.

Wages proposed a selective strike fund assessment, which he said would prepare the union for the next round of negotiations and send a message to corporate America that the union is ready to defend hard-won gains. The $50 assessment would be paid monthly by every member in the oil groups in addition to their regular union dues. The fund would pay members on strike or locked out $75 per week, in addition to $50 regular weekly strike benefits.

The proposal met widespread opposition from the delegates. An amended proposal for a system of voluntary participation at $25 per member was withdrawn when it became clear that it also would be defeated. Cecily Feudo, a delegate from Local 1-5 in the San Francisco Bay Area, said that what members of her local would support is a "pay as you go" system to support strikes that are under way.

Anthony Mazzocchi, assistant to Wages, reported on the OCAW's efforts to advance the Labor Party. This grouping was formed last year at a conference that included officials from the OCAW and a few other unions. The Labor Party is a "long-range strategy that can contain the frustrations of our members," Mazzocchi stated. It is a party that will not yet run candidates for office, but will "develop an agenda and frame the debate around working-class solutions," he said. In the meantime, OCAW will continue to support "pro- labor" candidates, most of them in the Democratic Party.

A resolution on Nigeria was passed unanimously. In 1993 a military dictatorship seized power in Nigeria. Leading trade union and human rights leaders were jailed, murdered, or forced into exile. The resolution demands the immediate release of all Nigerian political prisoners. It also calls on Washington to take measures, including oil sanctions, against the Nigerian government.

The delegates passed a resolution that encourages participation in "employee involvement" programs. The resolution states that the "corporate goals are directly against the interests of OCAW members," citing attempts to diminish seniority protection, weaken work rules, expand subcontracting, and reduce the permanent work force. But it goes on to urge locals to negotiate an agreement on "organizing neutrality" - that a company would not interfere in an organizing drive at any of its nonunion facilities - in exchange for continued cooperation in such programs.

Other resolutions adopted took up environmental issues, health, and safety.

Organizing drives
The membership of the OCAW is about 80,000, down from 90,000 in 1991. These losses are largely the result of the employers pushing for more work out of fewer people, as well as some plant closures.

The convention included workshops on OCAW organizing efforts and a talk by AFL-CIO organizing director Richard Bensinger. The workshop presenters reported that OCAW won 42 of its last 74 union representation elections, with the success rate improving. In his speech Bensinger pointed to a successful organizing drive by construction workers in Las Vegas and efforts by farm workers as other examples of what is possible. Locals were urged to allocate up to one-third of their budgets for organizing.

Author Barbara Ehrenreich gave a speech to the convention about the recent "welfare reform" legislation. She expressed disappointment in Clinton for signing the bill, which she described as an attack and downward pressure on wages.

The delegates heard speeches from international guests Rich Baskin, vice president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers of Canada, and Vasily Veryovkin an officer of the Russian oil workers union.

Boyd Young, president of the United Paperworkers International Union also addressed the convention. He raised the hope of a merger of his union and the OCAW. A merger between the two unions was voted down by the Paperworkers' convention in 1988. Young said he was proud to be a liberal Democrat, but he was not proud of his party the last few years. "Clinton has wimped out," he said. He stressed that the OCAW's support for the Labor Party was no obstacle to a merger between the two unions.

After the convention adjourned, more than 100 OCAW members joined workers on the picket line at the Frontier Hotel, where members of the Culinary Workers went on strike in 1991.

Michael Pennock and Pat Nixon are members of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers union.  
 
 
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