BY ERNIE MAILHOT AND BETSY FARLEY
PITTSBURGH - The 22nd constitutional convention of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations opened here September 22 with stepping up efforts to organize workers into unions as one of its main themes.

Dozens of workers who have been part of union organizing drives in recent months joined AFL-CIO president John Sweeney on the stage at the David Lawrence Convention Center. Many of these workers gave brief descriptions of their struggles. Laura Barrera, a hotel worker from San Francisco, addressed the convention in Spanish with English translation. She described the recent victory of 900 workers winning union recognition for the first time ever at a Marriott Hotel. She ended her speech to a cheering audience with, "Adelante, adelante, a la victoria! [Forward, forward, to victory!]"

Along with Barrera, garment workers, meatpackers, steelworkers, Teamsters, nurses, teachers, and others introduced their fights to more than 1,000 union delegates and guests from the United States and 100 international guests attending the convention. They described union organizing victories including 30,000 new state employees in Maryland, 5,000 Continental Airlines mechanics, and 2,000 New York City asbestos workers.

Discussion in much of the convention, and at several public meetings organized in conjunction with it, was marked by the recent strike victories of the Teamsters at United Parcel Service and of Bay Area Rapid Transit workers, who pushed back the two-tier wage setup. Together with the steelworkers at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, these strikes represent a significant shift. After two decades of retreat by the labor movement, these battles pushed back major employer offensives that would have further weakened the working class.

Union organizing drives
In his opening speech to the convention, Sweeney outlined proposals for launching more organizing drives. "Our membership numbers are beginning to creep back up because of more than 2,000 organizing victories won by workers like those who are with us on this stage," he said. Among others he pointed to the struggles by members of the United Farm Workers union among strawberry workers in California and apple pickers in Washington state.

According to an AFL-CIO information packet given out at the convention, the labor organization has increased the percentage of its operating budget that goes to organizing from 4 percent in 1995 to 30 percent today - more than $30 million. In addition, training programs for organizers are being increased, and officials say an orientation to organizing entire industries and geographic areas is being promoted.

A number of officials and delegates spoke of winning neutrality agreements from companies. This would allow workers to win union recognition solely by getting the majority of workers in a workplace to sign union cards. In such cases a follow-up NLRB election is not held.

Ray Shawn Ward, 21, and Tara Davis Ward, 25, spoke about their fight to organize pork processor Carolina Foods in Tar Heel, North Carolina, into the United Food and Commercial Workers union. In spite of winning an overwhelming majority of the 4,000 workers to sign cards for the union, the company was able through intimidation and other methods to defeat the union in the NLRB election held afterward.

Ray Shawn Ward explained that the majority of the workforce is Mexican immigrants. "The Mexicans are mostly supportive of the union and were very active in the struggle," he said. Although he has been fired because of his leadership in the drive, the union activist explained, "I'm not going to give up. We don't feel like we are losers; you only lose if you give up the fight."

While the convention was stamped by the organizing fights and strike victories, the AFL-CIO officialdom continued to point to the Democratic Party as the way forward for labor. Sweeney called for a campaign to register 4 million new union voters by the year 2000, as well as encouraging union members to run for office.

Several Democratic Party politicians including President William Clinton, Rep. Richard Gephardt, and Sen. Tom Daschle addressed the convention, as well as Labor Secretary Alexis Herman.

Herman stressed that the labor victory at UPS was "a victory for collective bargaining," and that the strike ended "when both the management and the workers realized they could not survive without one another."

Discussion on `fast-track' trade
In his remarks, Gephardt called for "governmental action to bring a fair face to capitalism." He also stated, "I am not opposed to fast-track authority for the president in negotiating trade agreements, as long as protective measures for jobs, workers, and the environment are included."

"Fast track" refers to the Clinton administration's proposal to renew legislation giving the president the ability to draft trade deals that must be voted up or down by Congress without amendment. The White House aims to use the fast track to exert the domination of U.S. capital by extending the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to other countries in Latin America. Many in the officialdom of the unions oppose the fast track from the narrow view that this would mean the loss of "American" jobs.

The Teamster strike at UPS was often mentioned at the convention, but nothing was directly said about the government intervention into the union that was announced immediately after the victory at UPS. This attack, in the form of forcing a new election on the union and threatening to not only remove Ronald Carey as president but disqualifying him from running in the forced election, was addressed by Carey at a press conference on the second morning of the convention. Carey said an investigation should be launched into James Hoffa, Jr. election campaign finances. Hoffa ran against Carey in the recent Teamster election and is expected to be his opponent in the upcoming election.

In the first two days of the convention delegates approved several resolutions, including expanding the AFl-CIO constitution's non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation along with race, creed, color, or sex.

Three resolutions on U.S. relations with Cuba were referred back to the Executive Council. The resolutions from the Washington Federation of State Employees Local 304 and the San Francisco Central Labor Council called for lifting the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

The third, from the Florida State AFL-CIO, called for continuing the U.S. government's anti-Cuba policies.

Gloria Johnson, an AFL-CIO vice president and president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, made a special presentation to one session of the convention on the recent Ask a Working Woman conference sponsored by the AFL-CIO. "In the past 12 years more women have been organized into unions than men," Johnson said. "Now women comprise 40 percent of the AFL-CIO membership and that percentage is growing."

AFL-CIO executive vice president Linda Chavez-Thompson also spoke, calling for a "national grassroots campaign" to launch a fight for equal pay for women, union organization, and quality childcare.  
 
 
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