- Samuel Gompers
Samuel Gompers (January 26, 1850-December 13, 1924) was an American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and held the position as president of the organization for all but one year from 1886 until his death in 1924. He promoted harmony among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL. Focused on higher wages and job security, he fought against both socialism and the Socialist Party.
- Jimmy Hoffa
James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (February 14, 1913, disappeared July 30, 1975, date of death unknown) was an American labor leader, gangster, fraudster and criminal convict. As the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Hoffa wielded considerable influence. After his conviction, he served nearly a decade in prison.
- Dolores Huerta
Dolores C. Huerta (born April 10, 1930) is the co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW). She was born in the miningtown of Dawson, New Mexico where her father, Juan Fernandez, was a miner, field worker, union activist and state legislator. Her parents divorced when she was three years old. Her mother, Alicia Chavez, raised Dolores, along with her two brothers, and two sisters, …
- John L. Lewis
John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 - June 11, 1969) was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960. He was a major player in the history of coal mining. He was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s.
- John Sweeney
John Sweeney (b. May 5, 1934) is the president of the AFL-CIO. An AFL-CIO vice president since 1980, he was elected president of the AFL-CIO at the federation's biennial convention in October 1995 and was most recently re-elected in 2005.
- Walter Reuther
Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic party in the mid 20th century. He was a leading liberal and supporter of the New Deal coalition. Reuther was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, the son of a socialist brewery worker who had immigrated from Germany. In his entire career he was close to his brothers and co-workers Victor Reuther and Roy Reuther.
- A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph (April 15 1889 - May 16 1979) was a prominent twentieth century African-American civil rights leader and founder of the first black labor union in the U.S.
- Mother Jones
Mary Harris Jones, better known as Mother Jones, was a prominent American labor and community organizer, and Wobbly.
- George Meany
George Meany (August 16, 1894 - January 10, 1980) was an American labor leader, who served as President of the American Federation of Labor from 1952 to 1955, and then, following its merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the latter year, as president of the united AFL-CIO from 1955 to 1979.
- Andy Stern
Andy Stern is the president of the 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the fastest-growing union in North America.
- César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was a Mexican American (Chicano) farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union workers. He is considered a hero for farm laborers, and fought against illegal immigration to help keep wages higher and improve work safety rules.
- Harry Bridges
Harry Bridges (July 28 1901 - March 30 1990) was an influential American labor leader in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), a union of longshore and warehouse workers on the West Coast, Hawai'i and Alaska which he helped form and led for over forty years. As controversial as he was charismatic, he was prosecuted by FDR, Truman and Eisenhower alike, …
- Lane Kirkland
Joseph Lane Kirkland (March 12 1922 - August 14 1999) was a US labor union leader who served as President of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.
- Joe Hill
Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, and also known as Joseph Hillström was a radical songwriter, labor activist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies. He was executed for murder after a controversial trial. After his death, he became the subject of a folksong.
- Miguel Contreras
Miguel Contreras was an American labor leader. He "was known as a king-maker for both local and state politicians." Contreras was born in the Dinuba, a city in California's agricultural Central Valley to farmworker parents who had immigrated from Mexico during the 1920s under the Bracero Program. After meeting Cesar Chávez at a rally for Robert Kennedy in the late 1960s, he became an activist for the United Farm Workers. He promoted the Delano Grape Boycott in Toronto, …
- William Green
William Green (March 3, 1873 - November 21, 1952) was president of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952. The son of Welsh immigrant coal miners from Coshocton, Ohio, he was elected secretary of the United Mine Workers of America in 1891. In 1910, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, where he served as both Senate president "pro tempore" and Democratic floor leader. He was named to the AFL Executive Council in 1914, and became Secretary-Treasurer in 1916.
- Randi Weingarten
Randi Weingarten (born 1957) is an American labor leader and educator and is the current president of the United Federation of Teachers.
- Sidney Hillman
Sidney Hillman (March 23, 1887 - July 10, 1946) was an American labor leader. Head of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, he was a key figure in the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations and in marshaling labor's support for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.
- Maria Elena Durazo
Maria Elena Durazo is the current executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. She was appointed the interim executive secretary-treasurer following the resignation of Martin Ludlow in February 2006, and was voted as the permanent replacement on May 15, 2006. She is the widow of Miguel Contreras, who preceded Ludlow as the executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
- Bill Haywood
William Dudley Haywood (February 4, 1869-May 18, 1928), better known as Big Bill Haywood, was a prominent figure in the American labor movement. Haywood was a leader of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America. During the first two decades of the 20th century, he was involved in several important labor battles, …
- John Mitchell
John Mitchell (February 4, 1870 - September 9, 1919) was a United States labor leader and president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1898 to 1908. John Mitchell was born in 1870 in Braidwood, Illinois, a second generation Irish immigrant. He became an orphan when he was only six years old, and began working at that age to support his family. He worked in the coal mines his whole life.
- Victor Gotbaum
Victor Gotbaum (b. September 5, 1921) was an American labor leader. From 1965 to 1987, he was president of AFSCME District Council 37 (DC37), the largest municipal union in New York City. Gotbaum was born in Brooklyn, New York. He married his first wife, Sarah, in August 1943. He fought in World War II, attended Brooklyn College and the School of International Affairs at Columbia University, …
- Philip Murray
Philip Murray (May 25, 1886 - November 9, 1952) was a steelworker and an American labor leader. One of the most important American labor leaders of the 20th century, he was the first president of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC), the first president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), and the longest-serving president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
- James P. Hoffa
James Phillip Hoffa (born May 19, 1941), is the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He is the only son of Jimmy Hoffa who was also a president of the Teamsters, and his wife, Josephine Poszywak. He is the brother of Judge Barbara Ann Crancer. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Hoffa established himself as a leader as early as his high school years while attending Cooley High School.
- David Dubinsky
David Dubinsky (David Dubnievski) (February 22, 1892 - September 17, 1982) was an American labor leader. He served as president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) between 1932 and 1966, took part in the creation of the CIO and was one of the founders of the American Labor Party and the Liberal Party of New York.
- Richard Trumka
Richard Trumka is a leader in the American labor movement. He currently serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, a post to which he was elected in 1995. He previously was president of the United Mine Workers from 1982 to December 22, 1995. Trumka was born in Nemacolin, Pennsylvania, a third-generation coal miner who went to work in the mines at age 19. He attended Pennsylvania State University and received his law degree from Villanova University's law school.
- Albert Shanker
Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 - February 22, 1997) was President of the UFT from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the AFT from 1974 to 1997.
- Ron Carey
Ronald Robert Carey (b. March 22 1936, New York City) is a former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Carey became a UPS deliveryman in 1955 and a shop steward in the IBT in 1958. In 1963, he ran for business agent of Local 804. Carey was elected general president of the Teamsters in 1991, in the first secret ballot rank and file election in the history of the union. In 1996 he was narrowly re-elected ahead of James P. Hoffa.
- Roger Toussaint
Roger Toussaint (born 1956 in Trinidad and Tobago) is the current President of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, the union of New York City Transit Authority employees in New York City.
- Linda Chavez-Thompson
Linda Chavez-Thompson (born August 3, 1944, in Lubbock, Texas) is a Hispanic-American trade union leader. She is the executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and a member of the board of trustees of United Way of America. In 1997, she was appointed a member of Advisory Board to President Clinton's One America Initiative.
- Tom Mooney
Tom Mooney (September 12, 1954 - December 3, 2006) was an American labor leader and public school teacher. Mooney had also been president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers since 2000. He had previously been president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Local 1520 of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFL-CIO, from 1979 to 2000. Mooney grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated with a bachelor's degree from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1972.
- Anna Burger
Anna Burger was named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in 2006 and called "the most powerful woman in the labor movement" by Fortune Magazine. She's a top ranking officer at SEIU - the nation's largest and fastest growing union - and the first chair of America's newest labor federation, Change to Win . Breaking with tradition is nothing new for Burger; in the 1970'-80's she was out front on picket lines, anti-war protests and feminist rallies.
- Leo Gerard
Leo W. Gerard (b. 1947) is a steelworker, Canadian and American labor leader. He was elected president of the United Steelworkers (USW) in 2001, becoming the second Canadian to head the union. He is also a vice president of the AFL-CIO. Gerard is the son of a union miner, and grew up in the town of Lively, Ontario. His father, Wilfred Gerard, was a hard rock miner at INCO's Creighton Mine and a national organizer with the International Union of Mine, Mill, …
- Sandra Feldman
Sandra Feldman (October 13, 1939 - September 18, 2005) was an American civil rights activist, educator and labor leader who served as president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from 1997 to 2004.
- Martin Ludlow
Martin Ludlow (born 1964) was a member of the Los Angeles City Council from 2003 to 2005. He represented the 10th district. He was elected May 20, 2003 and resigned on June 30, 2005. After the death of close friend Miguel Contreras at a place where police later conducted stings where it was a known to be a brothel, Ludlow rose to succeed him as the County's labor leader.
- Frank Fitzsimmons
Frank Fitzsimmons, was President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from Jimmy Hoffa's conditional pardon in 1971 until his own death from cancer in 1981. Fitzsimmons was vice president of the Teamsters when he was appointed as a caretaker president after Jimmy Hoffa surrendered himself to serve a sentence on a federal conviction. Hoffa was later pardoned by Richard Nixon. As a condition of the pardon, Hoffa was barred from union office for a period of ten years.
- Marvin Miller
Miller retired in 1982 and came back for a brief stint in 1983. Throughout the years, he has continued to be active in baseball affairs as an advisor to the Players Association. One issue that has managed to go unresolved through the tenures of Miller and two subsequent players union heads, as well as the reigns of the last five baseball commissioners, is the absence of a workable drug policy.
- Rose Schneiderman
A Russian-Jewish immigrant working in New York's garment industry, Schneiderman organized workers for the Women's Trade Union League in 1908 and became its president in 1928, a position she held for 20 years. She was an ardent suffragist, and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1920 on a campaign of better working conditions. She served on the Labor Advisory Board of Roosevelt's NRA for two years, and was a founding member of the ACLU.
- George Brown
George Brown was at one time the president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes. In 1941 he was tried and convicted for extortion.
- Jackie Presser
Jackie Presser (August 6 1926-July 9 1988) was an American labor leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1983 until his death in 1988. He was closely connected to organized crime, and allegedly became president of the Teamsters based on the approval and support of the Cleveland mafia. From 1972 until his death, he was also an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning mafia influence in the Teamsters union.