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The following excerpts are from
the
"The Fighting Machinists, A Century of Struggle"
by Robert G. Rodden.
 FIRST
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER.
WILLIAM L. DAWLEY, 1888 - 1895
. . . .William L. Dawley, another of the original 19 became Grand
Secretary. . . .Following the first meeting on the evening of May 5,
Talbot and the others spent much of the next two weeks getting their new
"order" properly launched. They drafted an oath or
"obligation" of membership--which each of the nineteen founding
members took. They formed Lodge 1 of Atlanta and assessed themselves $1.50
each--then almost a days wage--to help pay for printing constitutions,
rituals, membership applications, dues cards and charters.
 SECOND
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER.
GEORGE PRESTON, 1895 - 1917
. . . .George Preston, was born in England in 1864 and reared as a
militant trade unionist in Nottingham, a breeding ground of the early
British trade union movement. When he immigrated to America in 1886, he
almost immediately joined the Knights of Labor. He switched to the IAM in
1890 and was barely in his thirties when he was elected to the union's
highest financial office. Although his contemporaries, including his
friends, describe Preston as having a rather disagreeable and overbearing
personality, no one ever questioned his honesty, integrity or efficiency.
. . .During the twenty-two years he served as the union's top financial
officer, he developed many of the safeguards which are still followed
today in handling the accounting for IAM funds.
 THIRD
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
EMMET C. DAVISON, 1917 - 1944
Born in Virginia in 1878, Emmet Davison completed his apprenticeship
and joined the IAM before enlisting as a cavalryman in the
Spanish-American War. After mustering out he returned to the trade but was
blacklisted for his highly visible role in the 1901 strike for the
nine-hour day. Changing his name, Davison finally landed a job in a shop
affiliated with the NMTA. Promoted to foreman, he was given a list of
names of "agitators" who were not to be hired. The first name he
saw was his own. Within a few years Davison was elected business
representative of Local Lodge 10 in Richmond--Creamer's old home lodge. In
1913 Johnston appointed him General Organizer. Though somewhat short in
stature, Davison was robust, verging on plumpness, when he became GST at
the age of 39. In later years he grew increasingly frail, almost fragile,
in appearance but never lost a sense of merry enthusiasm for life. He
liked to chase fire engines and invariably rushed to his office window
when a police siren or ambulance was heard on the street below.
 FOURTH
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
ERIC PETERSON, 1944 - 1959.
Born in Sweden in 1894 Peterson came to Rawlins, Wyoming with his
immigrant family at the age of ten. His father was the town shoemaker.
After completing grade school young Peterson went to work on the Union
Pacific, first as a call boy, (Unlike a call girl, a
call boy's job was to get train crews out of bed)
then as an apprentice machinist. Before completing his apprenticeship and
becoming eligible for IAM membership Peterson found himself in the thick
of the legendary 1911 strike against the Harriman lines. When the shopmen
walked out Peterson walked with them. This was the strike that touched off
the Person case and brought Wharton to prominence in the labor movement.
Peterson became a member two years later, moving to Deer Lodge, Montana
where he went to work as a machinist on the Milwaukee road. In later
years, he recalled that the IAM had just negotiated a 41¢ an hour wage
rate for machinists.
 FIFTH
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
ELMER E. WALKER, 1959 - 1965.
Peterson's successor, Elmer Walker, was born in Louisville, Kentucky
in 1900, and began his machinists apprenticeship with Swift and Company at
age sixteen. After joining Local Lodge 121 in East St. Louis in 1918,
Walker knocked around the Midwest as a tool and die maker for the next
twelve years. . . After being appointed to the Grand Lodge staff in 1942,
Walker was elected GVP and was assigned to the Great Lakes territory in
1945. When Hayes became IP in 1949 he transferred Walker to Grand Lodge to
serve as resident GVP. Ten years later, at age fifty-nine, Walker became
the IAM's fifth GST.
 SIXTH
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
MATTHEW DeMORE, 1965 -1969.
Born in Cleveland in 1903, Matt DeMore began peddling papers in a
tough East Side neighborhood at the age of nine and was clerking in a
hardware by the time the was eleven. After knocking around at various
jobs, including blacksmith helper on the Michigan Central Railroad in
Detroit and motorman on a Cleveland streetcar line, he got his growing
family through the Depression working as a maintenance machinist at a
company that later became a division of General Electric. In 1935, DeMore
led his fellow workers into Local Lodge 439. He advanced rapidly, first to
the presidency of the local in 1936 and to directing business
representative of District 54 in 1938. Over the next twenty-three years
DeMore built District 54 into one of the IAM's largest and most
progressive units. In the early 40's he once had his skull cracked when
mounted police charged an IAM picket line in a memorably bloody strike at
the Pipe Machinery Co
 SEVENTH
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
EUGENE D. GLOVER, 1969 - 1987.
DeMore's successor, Eugene Glover, was born to a farm family in
Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1922. . . . After graduating from high school in
1941, he entered a machinist apprenticeship with the Universal Match
Company and joined the Tool and Die Lodge 688. His apprenticeship was
hardly begun when, along with most others of his generation, Glover was
swept into the military by World War II . . . . Honorably discharged in
October, 1945, S/Sgt Glover returned to his apprenticeship at Universal
Match, receiving his journeyman papers in 1949. With the match industry
hit by layoffs and an uncertain future, Glover took his skills to the fast
growing McDonnell Aircraft Company. He soon became active in Lodge 837 as
a steward and a member of the negotiating committee. In 1956 Glover became
the first Lodge 837 member to be chosen by the district to serve as a
business representative for employees working under its contract at
McDonnell. As a business representative and secretary of the IAM
Electronics Committee, Glover became known over the next eight years for
his ability to remain calm under stress and for his disarming sense of
humor in negotiations. A relatively young forty-six when elected GST,
Glover had spent the four previous years as GVP for the Midwest Territory.
 EIGHTH
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
TOM DUCY, 1987 - 1993.
Tom Ducy, the dean of the IAM Executive Council, was appointed General
Secretary-Treasurer of the International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers in December, 1987.
The new general secretary-treasurer has served on the IAM Executive
Council longer than any other member, having been named vice president in
1971 and was re-elected every four years. Prior to his new appointment he
was the IAM's General Vice President in the Midwest Territory with
headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. He brought to the General
Secretary-Treasurer's office a long record of service to the membership
and qualifications for the union's second highest position. Prior to his
selection as a vice president, Ducy served in the Cleveland, Ohio office
as administrative assistant to the vice president in the Great Lakes
Territory. Born in Falls City, Nebraska, young Tom grew up in a trade
union household. His father was a railroad engineman and held local and
state offices in two railroad trade unions. For several years Tom boomed
through Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and California, working as a truck
mechanic. In 1950, he joined IAM Local 777 in St. Louis, Missouri. During
the Korean conflict he served in the U.S. Coast Guard. After his honorable
discharge in 1953, he moved to Denver, Colorado, where he transferred his
membership to IAM Local 606 while working in the shop of the
Denver-Chicago Truck Lines. He quickly assumed union leadership
responsibilities, as steward, local officer, delegate to IAM District 86,
and district trustee. In August, 1956, he began serving the district as an
organizer and later as an elected full-time union representative. He was
also elected a delegate to the Denver Labor Federation (AFL-CIO) and the
Colorado State AFL-CIO which elected him a vice president. In 1961 he was
appointed Grand Lodge Representative and assigned to the Great Lakes
Territory. One of his responsibilities there was to present cases to the
national Labor Relations Board. He later became administrative assistant
to the general vice president. For many years he also served as a trustee
on the IAM Pension Fund and various IAM multi-employer trust funds. As
chief financial officer of the IAM, Tom Ducy was responsible of membership
records, finances, pensions, insurance, bonding, audits, investments, and
budgeting. He was also co-chairman of both the IAM National Pension Fund
and IAM Staff Pension Fund.
 NINTH
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
DONALD E. WHARTON, 1993 - 2003
For Donald E. Wharton, work and trade union membership are synonymous.
When he began his job at a Mansfield, Ohio, electrical firm in 1955, the
first thing he did was join the union. He was 17 years old when he began
paying dues to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace
Workers (IAM) Local 1405. He has been paying those dues ever since. But
Don Wharton wasn't satisfied with being just a union member. He sought and
held virtually every local IAM union office from shop steward to local
lodge president. By 1962, his leadership was obvious and was sought on a
wider scale. That was the year he was elected full time Business
Representative for IAM District 59 in Marion, Ohio. In 1966, he was
elected President of the influential Ohio State Council of Machinists, an
office that he held until his appointment to the union's international
field staff in 1968. In 1972, Grand Lodge Representative Don Wharton was
named Administrative Assistant to the General Vice President in the
union's Great Lakes Territory, based in Cleveland, Ohio. He also served on
the Ohio State Democratic Executive Committee during this time. In 1981,
the international union tapped his leadership skills more directly and
assigned him to IAM Headquarters in Washington, DC. There he assumed
duties as the director of the control room of the new national organizing
department. Subsequently, Wharton was reassigned as the first director of
the new IAM education center at Placid Harbor in southern Maryland. In
1983, he was appointed Executive Assistant to International President
William Winpisinger. he served in that post until his appointment as
General Vice President in January, 1988. He was re-elected in 1989,
directing the union's Great Lakes Territory, headquartered in Cleveland,
Ohio. He also served as a Vice President of the Ohio AFL-CIO during this
time. In 1993, Don Wharton was elected to his union's second highest
position, General Secretary-Treasurer. In that position he directs the
union's finances from Machinist Union headquarters in Upper Marlboro,
Maryland. Wharton was re-elected as General Secretary-Treasurer in 1997.
 TENTH
GENERAL SECRETARY TREASURER,
WARREN L. MART, 2003 -
A life long Machinist with the experience and credentials to take over
for retired General Secretary-Treasurer Don Wharton. As the GVP of the
Eastern Territory, Warren earned a reputation for organizing hundreds of
large and small bargaining units. "The future of any organization
lies in its ability to grow," said Mart. "We've got to be
diverse enough to attract new members in traditional sectors, and nimble
enough to recognize opportunities in developing industries." As the
union's chief financial officer, Warren oversees the operation of nearly
1,300 local and district lodges across North America. "The Machinists
have a reputation for running a tight and smart financial ship," said
Mart. "In spite of the challenges we're facing today, I intend to
protect that reputation at all costs.
Warren Mart joined the IAM in 1966 as a member of Local Lodge 1955. He
hired on as a welder at Arkla Air Conditioning, Evansville, Indiana. Local
Lodge Shop Steward and President. Directing Business Rep. District Lodge
153, 1980; Mayor's Labor Advisory Board; the United Way, S.W. Indiana;
Evansville Leadership Board; V. P. Indiana State AFL-CIO, 1988; V.P.
Southern Indiana Central Labor Council; Sec.-Treasurer. and President of
the Indiana State Council of Machinists. Special Rep., 1987; Grand Lodge
Rep., 1989; IAM Vice President 1997. Mart and his wife, Karen, have one
daughter.
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