1988 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION : 20% of Delegates Represent Labor

Almost 20% of the delegates at the Democratic convention this year are union members, more than at any time in history. But to television viewers, the labor presence has been all but invisible.

It is a combination that appears to please Democratic Party officials. The party can use the considerable help of unions in the fall election, but it doesn’t need the image of a party catering to special interests.

Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO, has declined several invitations to make appearances on network television. Additionally, labor has pushed no special agenda at the convention.

Has 159 Delegates

“There haven’t been any controversies for labor to try to make itself visible over,” said Jerry Clark, political director of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, which has 159 delegates, more than any other AFL-CIO union. The independent National Education Assn. has 280.

“If labor had wanted higher visibility at the convention they could have had it, but people are sensitive to the special interest thing,” said one union activist.

During the 1984 primaries, after the AFL-CIO awarded Walter F. Mondale its first pre-primary endorsement in history, Mondale was labeled a captive of so-called “special interests” by his opponents, Sens. John Glenn of Ohio and Gary Hart of Colorado.

This year, a clear labor consensus on a choice of candidate never emerged, so unions worked for a number of candidates and played a significant role in the campaigns of both Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The most visible labor official at the convention was William Winpisinger, president of the International Assn. of Machinists, who nominated Jackson for President. It was the first time in history that a union president had made a nominating speech at the convention, said AFL-CIO Press Secretary Rex Hardesty.

Connection Shown

“It showed the strong connection between Jesse and America’s workers,” said Daniel Cantor, Jackson’s labor coordinator.

One other way that labor was visible here was in the militant “Justice for Janitors,” campaign being pushed by the Service Employees International Union. The union held protests at five events that were sponsored by or held in buildings owned or controlled by Atlanta developer John Portman, who the union contends is illegally thwarting an organizing campaign. Portman denies the charge.

But for the most part, labor was quietly and effectively integrated into the mainstream of convention activities, the Dukakis campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Labor officials played key roles on the platform committee and numerous labor delegates served as floor whips for the Dukakis and Jackson organizations here.

The AFL-CIO will not make a formal endorsement of a presidential candidate until after the Republican convention, but no one here thinks there is the faintest chance the 14.3 million labor federation would endorse Vice President George Bush.

Convention Called Success

“I think that this convention has been an enormous success for us,” said Tom Donahue, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. “We’ve been a presence in the party. . . . We needed no minority planks in the platform because the majority platform mirrored our concerns,” Donahue said.

Earlier this year, several union officials expressed considerable concern about Dukakis’ position on trade, a critical issue for labor. Dukakis modified his position after Missouri Rep. Richard A. Gephardt and Jackson began to score points in early primaries by focusing on trade and other issues of concern to workers.