Samuel Gompers, President, American Federation of Labor
(1850 - 1924)

Gompers, born in 1850, was a cigar maker by trade. He was later elected President of Cigar Makers Union, Local 144. In 1881, Gompers became head of the legislative council for the Federation of Trades and Labor Councils. In 1886, that organization became the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Gompers became its President. By 1890, the AFL represented more than 250,000 workers. By 1892, that number had grown to over one million workers. Gompers focused on collective bargaining to improve working conditions and the lives of workers, and legislative issues directly affecting workers.

A proponent of international trade unionism, Gompers later attended the Versailles Treaty negotiations and was involved in the creation of the International Labor Organization (ILO). He supported trade unionism in Mexico and the Pan-American Federation of Labor. Gompers died in 1924.

Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party Candidate for President of the U.S.
(1855 - 1926)

Debs, born in 1855 in Terre Haute, Indiana, served as a railway fireman early in his working life. In 1875, he became a charter member and secretary of the Vigo Lodge, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen. In 1880, Debs was named Grand Secretary of Railway Firemen and Editor of their magazine. In 1884, Debs was elected to the Indiana General Assembly on the Democratic ticket.

In 1890, Debs organized the American Railway Union (ARU) and was later jailed with ARU leadership for contempt of court over the Pullman strike. He ran for President of the United States as a candidate of the Socialist Party five times beginning in 1900. In 1918, Debs made his famous anti-war speech for which he was promptly arrested and imprisoned under the war time espionage law. Debs was sentenced to 10 years and stripped of his citizenship. In 1920, he ran for President for the fifth time conducting his campaign from prison. He received close to a million votes. His sentence was commuted by President Warren G. Harding on Christmas Day, 1921. Debs died in 1926.

Mother Jones, Organizer, Knights of Labor and United Mine Workers of America
(1830 - 1930)

Mary Harris (Mother) Jones was Born in Cork, Ireland on May 1, 1830 and was later raised in Toronto, Canada. She moved to Chicago in 1867 after losing her husband and four small children to a yellow fever epidemic. In 1871, tragedy again struck Jones and she lost everything she owned in the great Chicago fire. Shortly after this Jones began her career in labor organizing with the Knights of Labor. Among many other accomplishments, she helped found the Social Democratic Party in 1898 and was present at the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. After 1890 she became an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America and was known as the "Miner's Angel." Jones travelled tirelessly to support strikers throughout the country. She left the UMWA in 1904 to lecture for the Socialist Party of America until 1911 when she returned to organize for the UMWA.

Present for many of the historic labor stuggles and known as a true friend to all workers, Jones died on November 30, 1930, seven months after her 100th birthday. Jones is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery at Mount Olive, Illinois, in the coal fields of southern Illinois. Her grave is near those of the victims of the Virden, Illinois, mine riot of 1898.

Joe Hill, Organizer, Industrial Workers of the World
(1879 - 1915)

Joseph Hillstrom (Joe Hill) was born in Gavle, Sweden, on October 7, 1879. Hill, also known as Joel Hagglund, immigrated to the lower east side Bowery section of New York City through Ellis Island in 1902. Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) in 1910. He wrote songs based on the experiences of the working man of his day which were published in the IWW's Little Red Song Book . His most famous songs, including "Rebel Girl," "The Preacher and the Slave," and "Casey Jones," became world-famous and were used in labor organizing drives and in support of striking workers.

In 1914, Hill was convicted of the murder of a Salt Lake City store owner, John A. Morrison. The conviction was based on circumstantial evidence. His case became an international cause to prevent his execution by the State of Utah. Hill's supporters maintained that the business interests of the West, especially the "Copper Bosses" of Utah, had conspired to convict him. It is clear that, under today's laws, Hill would not have been executed on the evidence presented at his trial. President Woodrow Wilson intervened twice in an attempt to prevent the execution, but Hill was executed at the Utah State Prison in Sugar House, Utah, on November 19, 1915. One of his statements, "Don't mourn, organize!" has become a labor rallying cry.

John L. Lewis, President, United Mine Workers of America
(1880 - 1969)

John Llewellyn Lewis, the son of immigrants from Wales, was born in Iowa on February 12, 1880. At fifteen he found work as a miner in Illinois. He joined the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and eventually was elected branch secretary. In 1911 Lewis left the mines to become an organizer for the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1917 he was elected vice president of the UMWA . Three years later he became president of what was then the largest trade union in America.

In 1921 Lewis, with the support of William Z. Foster, failed in his attempt to challenge Samuel Gompers for the presidency of the American Federation of Labor. With growing unemployment, membership of the UMWA fell from 500,000 to less than 100,000 in the 1930s. In 1935 Lewis joined with the heads of seven other unions to form the Congress for Industrial Organization (CIO). Lewis became president of this new organization and over the next few years attempted to organize workers in the new mass production industries. This strategy was successful and by 1937 the CIO had more members than the American Federation of Labor. In the first year of the CIO, nearly four million workers joined labor organizations and wages were raised by over a billion dollars.

In the 1940s Lewis led a series of strikes that resulted in increased wages for miners. This resulted a growth in union members to 500,000. Congress responded to the success of unions such as the UMWA by passing the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) that placed new restrictions on trade unions . Lewis held the post of president of the United Mine Workers of America until 1960.

Perhaps Lewis' greatest legacy was the creation of the UMWA Welfare and Retirement Fund in a contract with the federal government, signed in the White House with President Truman in attendance. The UMWA Fund would change permanently health care delivery in the coal fields of the nation. The UMWA Fund built eight hospitals in Appalachia and established numerous clinics. In 1964, Lewis was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian decoration, by President Lyndon Johnson. John Llewellyn Lewis, who served as chairman of the UMWA's Welfare and Retirement Fund after his retirement, died in Washington on June 11, 1969.

A. Philip Randolph, President, Union of Sleeping Car Porters
(1889 - 1979)

Asa Philip Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida, on April 15, 1889. The son of a Methodist minister, he was educated locally before moving to New York where he studied economics and philosophy at the City College. While in New York he worked as an elevator operator, a porter and a waiter. In 1917 Randolph founded a magazine, The Messenger (later the Black Worker ), which campaigned for black civil rights. During the First World War he was arrested for breaking the Espionage Act. It was claimed that Randolph and his co-editor, Chandler Owen were guilty of treason after opposing African Americans joining the army.

After the war Randolph lectured at the Rand School of Social Science. A member of the Socialist Party, Randolph made several unsuccessful attempts to be elected to political office in New York. He was was involved in organizing black workers in laundries, clothes factories, and cinemas and in 1929 became president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP). Over the next few years he built it into the first successful black trade union.

After the Second World War Randolph led a campaign in favour of racial equality in the military. This resulted in Harry S. Truman issuing executive order 9981 on July 26, 1948, banning segregation in the armed forces. When the AFL merged with the CIO, Randolph became vice president of the new organization. He also became president of the Negro American Labor Council (1960-1966).

In his final years Randolph worked closely with Bayard Rustin in the AFL-CIO funded A. Philip Randolph Institute that was established in 1966. Philip Randolph died in New York on May 16, 1979.

George Meany, President, AFL-CIO
(1884 - 1980)

George Meany was born in 1884 in New York City and spent most of his boyhood in the Bronx. His father, Michael Meany, was president of the Bronx local of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters. In 1910, Meany joined the union as an apprentice at the age of 16 and worked as a plumber in New York for the next decade. In 1920, Meany was elected as the youngest member of the local union's executive board and two years later became a full-time business agent. During the 1920s, Meany was active on behalf of his local union in both the New York City Central Labor Council and the New York State Federation of Labor, where he ran successfully for president in 1934.

Meany was elected secretary-treasurer of the national American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1939. As second in command to President William Green, Meany played an important role in the formation of the War Labor Board, which helped spur the growth of union membership during the second world war. Meany took responsibility for the federation's international activities.

When Congress passed the repressive Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, Meany established and led Labor's League for Political Education, the first full-scale federation effort to register, educate, and mobilize union members. Labor's strength helped elect Harry Truman as president in 1948. Meany was elected to the presidency of the AFL in 1952 on the death of William Green. He assumed the leadership of a divided labor movement. Many of the nation's industrial unions were part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which had been created in the 1930s. He immediately sought to unify the movement, an effort that culminated in the founding convention of the AFL-CIO in 1955. Meany was elected unanimously as the first president of the merged labor federation.

In 1979, Meany stepped down as the president of the AFL-CIO and turned over its leadership to his second in command, Lane Kirkland. Meany died on January 10, 1980 and is buried at Gate of Heavens in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Walter Reuther, President, United Auto Workers of America
(1907 - 1970)

Walter Reuther was born in Wheeling, W.V., on Sept. 1, 1907. Reuther received an early education in socialism and union politics from his father. Reuther moved to Detroit in 1927, drawn by the Ford Motor Company's promise of high wages and a shorter workweek. He quickly established himself as one of the most skilled and respected mechanics at Ford's River Rouge plant. Working nights, Reuther earned his high school diploma at the age of 22 and took classes at Detroit City College (now Wayne State University), where he was joined by his younger brothers Victor and Roy.

In 1933, Walter and Victor began a nine-nation tour of Europe in Nazi Germany, ending it with a two-year stay in the Soviet Union, where the Reuther brothers worked at a massive automobile factory. Returning to Detroit in 1935, Reuther began organizing for the UAW, the new auto workers union under the auspices of the Committee on Industrial Organization. Eager to make his mark in the labor movement, he joined the fledgling UAW Local 86, representing employees at GM's Ternstadt parts plant, even though he was not employed by the company. In 1936, Reuther was elected a delegate to the UAW national convention. In 1939, Reuther became director of the UAW's General Motors department, and in 1942 he was elected the union's first vice president. During World War II, Reuther also served with the Office of Production Management, the War Manpower Commission and the War Production Board.

In 1946, Reuther was elected president of the UAW and remained its president until his death in 1970. Under his leadership, the UAW grew to more than 1.5 million members, becoming one of the largest unions in the United States. Reuther was widely admired as the model of a reform-minded, liberal, responsible trade unionist, He was also regarded as the leading labor intellectual of his age, a champion of industrial democracy and civil rights who used the collective bargaining process and labor's political influence to advance the cause of social justice for all Americans.

Reuther became president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1952 after the death of Philip Murray; he immediately joined with George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), to negotiate a merger between the two groups, which took effect in 1955. Reuther became director of the federation's Industrial Union Department (IUD). As head of the IUD, Reuther called for large-scale 1930s-style organizing drives and broad-based grassroots political action committees. He fought tirelessly for civil rights protections and an enhanced welfare state that would benefit all Americans. Reuther stood beside Martin Luther King Jr. when he delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington, and he met weekly with President Lyndon Johnson throughout 1964–1965 to discuss legislative and political initiatives.

Reuther; his wife, May; and two others were killed in a private plane crash in 1970. Reuther left a legacy of reform-minded unionism, civil rights activism and social justice idealism upon which the labor movement continues to draw.

Jimmy Hoffa, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
(1913 - 1975)

James Riddle Hoffa , the son of a coal driller, was born on February 14, 1913. His father died when he was seven and in 1924 the family moved to Detroit. Hoffa left school at fourteen and worked as a department-store stock boy. In 1932, as an active trade unionist he led a strike at a Detroit grocery store. By the age of 37 he was chairman of the Central States Drivers Council. In 1940, he was elected president of the Michigan Conference of Teamsters.

In 1952, Hoffa became vice president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union under president Dave Beck. In 1957, Hoffa became president of the Teamsters union. Hoffa was popular with the members and in 1960 was re-elected as president of the union. Unfortunately, Hoffa's many accomplishments as a trade unionist and labor leader have been overshadowed by the media attention surrounding his legal troubles and ultimate disappearance. During his tenure, Hoffa served to create one of the largest and most powerful labor unions in the world. Among other things, he fought tirelessly for pension benefits for his members, strong health and safety regulations, and made the National Master Freight Agreement one of the best union contracts in the country. Hoffa disappeared in 1975.

Harry Bridges, President, International Longshore and Warehouse Union
(1901 - 1990)

Bridges was born July 28, 1901 in Melbourne, Australia as Alfred Renton Bridges (later renamed "Harry" by American sailors). In 1920, Bridges immigrated to San Francisco. Eventually working on the docks, Bridges was elected president of the San Francisco local of the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) in 1935 and then president of the Pacific Coast District of the ILA in 1936. Bridges led efforts to form Maritime Federation of the Pacific, which brought all of the maritime unions together for common action. That federation helped the sailors union win the same sort of contract after a long strike in 1936 that the ILA had achieved in 1934.

In 1937, Harry Bridges became the president of the newly formed International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a post he would hold for the next 40 years. Under Bridges' leadership the ILWU won control of their hiring halls in 1934. Having won control of the hiring halls, Bridges and the ILWU campaigned for further concessions. Beginning in 1937, the ILWU began a campaign that would define the aims and goals of the union for the coming years. They fought to create a union open to all races, religions, and political leanings where the rank and file were empowered and politically active. They worked to ensure safe working conditions, healthcare benefits for their members, and established pensions to maintain their worker's welfare after retirement. They successfully negotiated for paid holidays and vactions as well as taking a public stand on a wide range of issues from nuclear disarmament and apartheid to fighting for workers rights around the world.

Harry Bridges never backed away from controversy. In fact, those whok new him like to say he encouraged it. Whether in the union halls or facing government agents he debated with vigor and passion. Win or lose, his elloquence and passion led even his most ardent opponents to respect him. Bridges died in 1990.

Cesar Chavez, President, United Farm Workers
(1927 - 1993)

Chavez was born on his family's farm in Yuma, Arizona in 1927. Living conditions were harsh, but César escaped this life temporarily in 1944, when at age 17 he joined the U.S. Navy to fight in World War II. Returning to California in 1946, he resumed his life as a farm worker, picking grapes and cotton. In 1952, Chávez joined the Community Service Organization (CSO) and became a community organizer. Cesar served as CSO national director in the late 1950's and early 1960's, but his dream was to create an organization to help farm workers whose suffering he had shared. In 1962, after failing to convince the CSO to commit itself to farm worker organizing, he resigned his paid CSO job and moved to Delano, California where he founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA).

In September 1965, Cesar's NFWA with 1200 member families joined the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), an AFL-CIO union, in a strike against major Delano area table and wine grape growers. Against great odds, Cesar led a successful five year strike-boycott that rallied millions of supporters. He forged a national support coalition of unions, church groups, students, minorities and consumers. The two unions merged in 1966 to form the United Farm Workers (UFW). In 1968, to draw more attention to the strike Chávez began a 25 day hunger strike, organized more rallies and demonstrations, and called for a national boycott of grapes. By 1970, the grape growers had agreed to a contract with the UFW which gave the workers health care benefits and a raise in pay. A similar call for a boycott of lettuce was less successful, but in 1975 Governor Jerry Brown signed the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first bill of rights for farm workers ever passed in the United States. For the first time, it gave farm workers the right to vote on union representation.

César E. Chávez continued to fight for the rights of farm workers as head of the UFW until his death in 1993. Over 50,000 mourners came to pay their respects to the humble man from Delano whose simple, humble manner belied a man of iron principles whose commitment to social justice was absolute and whose efforts to better the lives of his fellow men made him, in the words of Robert F. Kennedy, "One of the heroic figures of our time." He was awarded posthumously the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Clinton in 1994.

Solidarity