The International Association of Machinists (IAM) Lodge 284 was originally founded around the turn of the twentieth century. The early Lodge 284 has been characterized as militant due to its history of acting without sanction from the Grand Lodge. In his dissertation The San Francisco Machinists from Depression to Cold War, 1930-1950(1988), Richard Prime Boyden states that the Oakland Lodge was founded by members of San Francisco Lodge 68 (Boyden, pp.186-187). Joint by-laws for the two Lodges are included in the 1908 journal in the collection for Lodge 68. Throughout the years, Lodge 284 and Lodge 68 worked together; and in 1936, when Lodge 284 faced suspension from the International Association of Machinists, Lodge 68 led supporters.

The International Association of Machinists (IAM) was founded in 1888. San Francisco Lodge 68 was organized in 1885, even before the IAM, and became the oldest local. In 1895, the International Association of Machinists affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), which was founded in 1881.

Boyden notes that in the early decades of the century, both the San Francisco and Oakland lodges were known as 'boomer lodges', "stronger and more militant", because a number of their members were 'eastern men' (Boyden, p. 71). The International Association of Machinists did not officially integrate until 1948 when its executive council ordered the qualification that members be white be stricken from the union's initiation ritual. Although the American Federation of Labor required that no statement of a color line be explicit in an affiliate's constitution, many unions, including the International Association of Machinists, excluded people of color unofficially through their initiation rituals. In the 1917 and 1919 minutes, Lodge 284's support of Chinese exclusion from employment and industry is noted. Women are mentioned in the journals, first as members of the Ladies Auxilary in 1917 and later as employees/union members receiving strike benefits. In the International Association of Machinists, women members were formally accepted in 1911. Mark Perlman touches on the issues of race and gender in his book Democracy in the International Association of Machinists (1962). He is also the author of The Machinists: A New Study in American Trade Unionism(1961).

The predominant strikes or conflicts in the early minutes (1917-1919 and 1919-1920) refer to the Marchant Company and the Hall and Scott Company. The 1917-1919 minutes ledger mentions a resolution to strike in early 1919 with or without sanction (p. 482). Much of the 1919-1920 ledger documents recommendations for $6.40 for an 8 hour day, a 44 hour week and retroactive pay based on the Macy Award, which had fixed a wage level for shipyards (p.5, 45). Robert Edward Lee Knight mentions the Macy wage schedule in his book Industrial Relations in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1900-1918 (Knight, pp.360-61).

In 1936, there was a walkout of machinists on both sides of the Bay. IAM President Wharton had already taken on a number of issues with the Oakland and San Francisco locals. He demanded that they join with other locals in forming a district organization and they refused. Also, 284 refused to accept a new production worker classification. Wharton had given conditional sanction to the strike, but after negotiating with a leading employer in the strike, Atlas Diesel, Wharton withdrew sanction. His action emboldened strikers. The national office ordered the strikers back to work and encouraged police to harass the pickets. The strikers sent Lodge 68's Ed Dillon to negotiate with Wharton. Dillon "hinted that western machinists might secede from the International Association of Machinists rather than lose this strike" (Boyden, p. 179). Wharton ordered the Oakland local suspended. "The entire regional labor movement rallied to the machinists' defense," providing 284 with funds and other support (Boyden, p.179).

At the National Convention in Milwaukee, "the Oakland strike commanded the most attention" (Boyden, p.181). Ed Dillon made the main speech in Oakland's defense, however when asked by Wharton if he and the appellants would abide by the convention's decision, Dillon's " refusal to commit himself in advance to support an unfavorable decision caused a large majority of votes to go against the Oakland strikers" (Boyden, p. 186). The remaining strikers returned to work and the next year the local received a new charter from the CIO to become Local 1304 of the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee.

The Oakland and San Francisco machinists' lodges, one CIO, the other AFL, continued to operate jointly...despite the...enmity between the rival federations. [IAM and AFL] officials would for the next ten years relentlessly pursue twin goals of destroying Local 1304 and purging the militant leadership of Lodge 68. (Boyden, p. 187)

When Lodge 284 was suspended, Local 1304 SWOC-CIO organized in many shops which had previously been under the jurisdiction of Lodge 284. As noted, Lodge 68 began working with Local 1304, although it met with the regrouped Lodge 284 also. Lodge 284 and Local 1304 rivaled each other for members.

Throughout the history of the International Association of Machinists and the American Federation Labor, there has been an effort to retain the status of the skilled worker. The Congress of Industrial Organizations, with its focus on industry not craft, has highlighted that issue of status as a limit in the AFL's ability to represent all employees. In IAM Lodge 284, workers came to gain employment at three general levels: journeyman, specialists and production workers.

There is much information about apprenticeship training in Dave Wilson's Business Agent files of the late 1940s. There were numerous joint committees of the East Bay and with San Francisco which focused on the apprentice training issue. The proposal for the formation of the junior college system in Alameda-Contra Costa Counties came about in 1948.

Over the years, Lodge 284 operated offices or met at 453 8th Street, Oakland; Moose Hall at 12th and Clay; the Labor Temple; Danish Hall at 164 11th Street; Cooks Union Hall at 1608 WebsterStreet; and 1117 Webster Street.

Lodge 284 has been affiliated with: International Association of Machinists, District Lodge No. 115 and its locals; Metal Trades Council; Iron Trades Council; California Conference of Machinists; California State Federation of Labor; and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County.

The jurisdiction of Lodge 284 includes machinists employed as welders, diemakers, diecasters, tool crib attendants, oilers and screw machinists. Its geographic jurisdiction includes Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville and San Leandro. Employers include Aircraft Engineering and Maintenance Co., Albert Wright Screw Products, Caterpillar Tractor Co., Food Machinery Corporation, Hall Scott Motor Car Co., and Leslie and Morton Salt Cos., and Marchant Calculating Machine Co.