The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Labor Series LANE KIRKLAND Interviewer: James F. Shea and Don R. Kienzle Initial interview date: November 13, 199 Copyright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Bac ground, Education, and Early Employment Born in Camden, South Carolina U.S. Merchant Marine Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Naval Hydrographic Office Employment at the American Federation of Labor International Labor Organi,ation Fran Fenton, U.S. -or er Delegate Phil Delaney, U.S. -or er Delegate. Bric er Amendment Contacts with Early State Department Labor Attaches Selection of Labor Attaches Free Trade Union Committee European Office of the AFL in Paris AFL .ole in Germany AFL .ole in France International Maritime Preparatory Committee Seafarers International Union National Maritime Union AFL-CIO Department of International Affairs George Meany and International Labor Affairs Free Trade Union Committee International Confederation of Free Trade Unions International Labor Organi,ation Anti-Communism 1 AFL and the CIO .ivalry and Differences American Institute for Free Labor Development 0AIFLD1 Management .epresentatives on Board of Directors Country Program Offices Training Programs Other AFL-CIO Labor Assistance Institutes Poland and Solidarity 2.O... as the Precursor Secretary of State Ed Mus ie Polish Government3s Crac down on Solidarity Dennis Healy3s .eaction AFL-CIO3s Call for Tough Sanctions First Congress of Solidarity 4isa Application and Ambassador Spasows i. AFL-CIO Assistance to Solidarity Lech -alesa 4isit to Poland for the Second Congress of Solidarity Tenth Anniversary of Solidarity Celebration 4isit to the Grave of Father 56er,y7 Popielus, o AFL-CIO .elations with Histadrut 0Israeli Federation of Labor1 South Africa 4isit of ICFTU Delegation to South Africa Human .ights Conference Invitation from the Leningrad City Council .eception at Spaso House with American Ambassador 6ac Matloc Meetings with .ussian President Boris 8eltsin Sa harov Congress AFL-CIO Activities in Other Eastern European Countries 4isit to Cemetery in Budapest Me9ico and the North American Free Trade Agreement 0NAFTA1 Don Fidel 4ales:ue, President Clinton .everses Two Earlier E9ecutive Orders Other Subject Areas AFL and AFL-CIO Activities in North Africa Maastricht Treaty 2 INTERVIEW Shea: (ood afternoon. Today is November 13, 199 , and I am here with Don Kienzle at the (eorge Meany Labor Studies Center to interview my old friend and the former President of the AFL.CIO, Lane Kir0land, who has had a 18 year relationship with the AFL and the AFL.CIO. 2e is originally from Camden, South Carolina, and was an active member of the 4International Organization of5 Masters, Mates, and Pilots, and was on the Murmans0 route during 6orld 6ar II. (ood afternoon, Lane. 2I.2LAND: Good afternoon. Kienzle: Shall we start with something about your personal bac0ground, how you got involved in the AFL and the e7tent of your international activities early on8 2I.2LAND: Do you have :uestions or do you just want me to. Kienzle: 9es, would tell us where you were born and about your education8 2I.2LAND: I was born in Camden, South Carolina, and I grew up in the South. In 1940 I went to sea in the Merchant Marine as a dec cadet. I was in training to become a ship3s mate in a program that was part of the New Deal. Under the Merchant Marine Act of 193A, a program for training ships officers was established and candidates for appointment as cadets were chosen by a national e9am, which I too . I was selected, went to cadet training preliminary school in Algiers, Louisiana, and shipped out as a dec cadet on a ship called the BLiberatorB operated by Lytton Brothers Steamship Company and that was my beginnings as a seafarer. I sailed in various capacities. After completing my time in training, the war came and the training time was reduced. I became a third mate, second mate, then chief mate on various ships. I was on about seven different ships, and I came ashore-temporarily I thought at the time-in late 194A. I too a job in -ashington at the Naval Hydrographic Office as a nautical scientist. I joined the union, the Masters, Mates, and Pilots Union, in 1942, when I got my first license as a third mate, and I continued to hold membership in that organi,ation when I came ashore. I decided to finish my formal education, and at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service, there was a major in international shipping, which I entered, primarily because I thought it might help me eep a job as a ship3s captain after the war. I could pay for it by wor ing all day at the Naval Hydrographic Office and go to school at night. I got into full time wor in the AFL more or less by accident. Bill Green came one night to spea to a class that I was a member of at Georgetown, and I told him that I was the only union member that he would find there. He told me to come by and see him after I 3 graduated, and I did, and he offered me a job on the staff, and I thought I would try it for a little while, and I have been there ever since. I found a home. Kienzle: Jim, were you a second dues paying union member at (eorgetown8 Shea: 9es, I thin0 I was. Lane, when you were sailing, in addition to the Soviet :nion and the Murmans0 route, what other countries did you visit8 2I.2LAND: Oh, I did time on different ships on the North Atlantic on convoy runs, and then I was in the Mediterranean campaign, the Sicilian invasion shuttling ammunition between North Africa and Sicily and Italy. And I was on a couple of South American runs. At Guadalcanal, I was the third mate on a ship called the B6ean Ly es,B which too a field hospital unit to Guadalcanal sometime in 1943. At the end of the war I was the chief officer of a ship called the BContestB in the Pacific, a refrigerated cargo ship. -e were following the Third FleetD wherever it was, we were there issuing stores to the ships in the Third Fleet. -e bounced around the Pacific from places li e Ulithi, Eniweto , Leyte Gulf, Iwo 6ima, the Marianas, and at the end of that trip, which was a long one, I too my master3s license e9am, and then decided to finish school. I had heard of an opening at the Naval Hydrographic Office in -ashington, and I combined that job with going to school at night. My notion at that time was to finish college, get my degree, and go bac to sea. Shea: 6as there any type of training while you were on board8 Something li0e apprenticeship training8 2I.2LAND: 8es, when I was a dec cadet, I was an apprentice, in effect, preparing to :ualify as a ship3s officer Kienzle: Did you qualify for the (.I. Bill8 2I.2LAND: No, people in the Merchant Marine had no benefits under the G.I. Bill whatever. -e were civilians, and we were pretty much on our own. Kienzle: 6hen you first went to wor0 for the AFL.CIO, did you have. 2I.2LAND: I did not go to wor for the AFL-CIO. I went to wor for the AFL. Kienzle: I'm sorry. The AFL. Did you have any international responsibilities in the early years8 Did you do any research which dealt with the International Labor Organization (ILO) or 4other international subjects58 2I.2LAND: Oh, in the early years I did. I wor ed with Fran Fenton, who was the -or er3s Delegate to the ILO and then with Phil Delaney, who succeeded him, when Fran Fenton died. I wor ed a good deal with Phil Delaney, helping him prepare some of his interventions at the ILO particularly. I recall sometime during that period there was a great controversy over the so-called BBric er Amendment,B a campaign primarily initiated by the 4 U.S. Chamber of Commerce against what they called Blegislation by treaty,B targeting particularly the conventions of the ILO. Senator Bric er was the instrument through which a campaign was started to amend the Constitution to ma e it impossible to ratify treaties that affected domestic law. This campaign was primarily aimed at the wor er rights and wor er standards provisions of the ILO conventions 5and caused7 :uite a controversy at the time. I thin it was ultimately resolved during the Eisenhower Administration by a tacit agreement of the Eisenhower State Department not to submit any ILO treaties to the Senate for ratification. Kienzle: This lasted up until the end of the Reagan Administration, as I recall. 2I.2LAND: 8es, that3s right, when we finally bro e the log jam and began to get a few conventions approved, but in order to do that, we had to clear them through an inter-Cabinet committee chaired by the Secretary of Labor and including representatives of the various cabinet departments as well as representatives of the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce. Shea: 6as Jim Mitchell the Secretary of Labor at that time8 2I.2LAND: During the Eisenhower periodE 8es. Shea: And of course Marty Dur0in prior to Mitchell. 2I.2LAND: 8es. Shea: Do you recall contacts with the early labor attachAs8 2I.2LAND: 8es, in the course of time, I guess I new most of them. I remember Dale Good, Dan Horowit,, and Tom Lane. Shea: Sam Berger8 2I.2LAND: 8es, I met Sam Berger, but I didn3t now Sam very well.