CAMPAIGN ’88 : Labor Delegates Rise

Organized labor expects to send its largest contingent ever--nearly 1,000 strong--to the Democratic National Convention next month with support running more than 2 to 1 in favor of Dukakis, the apparent nominee, according to labor officials.

With seven states still apportioning delegates, the AFL-CIO said it already has matched the record 602 delegates--plus 43 so-called “super delegates” or party luminaries--it had at the 1984 convention. When the final count is in, the number of delegates should be considerably higher, federation officials said.

In addition to the AFL-CIO, the National Education Assn. has about 260 delegates so far. This is a sharp drop from 380 in 1984 and 485 in 1980. Kenneth Melley, political action director for the NEA, attributed the decrease to the fact that the NEA did not endorse a candidate in the primary campaign, as it did in 1980 and 1984.

There will be 4,161 delegates to the national convention next month, with 2,081 votes required to win the nomination.

A breakdown of the delegates from the AFL-CIO unions shows 56.3% support Dukakis, 25.6% favor Jackson. The rest were supporters of the other candidates but are likely to vote for Dukakis or Jackson.

Although there was no official breakdown of individual union delegate strength available, the biggest winner appears to be the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which estimates it will have almost 200 delegates. The United Auto Workers is next with an estimated 122 delegates so far.