William Green Papers on Microfilm

William Green (March 3, 1873 November 21, 1952)

After eight years of formal schooling, William Green began work in the coal mines of Ohio at age sixteen. Two years later, Green became secretary of the Coshocton Progressive Miners Union, which later became a local of the United Mine Workers of America. Green proceeded to hold a series of offices in the UMWA, including a ten year tenure as UMWA international secretary treasurer after an unsuccessful campaign for the UMWA presidency in 1910. Green served two terms in the Ohio Senate, where he wrote that state's workmen's compensation act. In 1914, he became a fourth vice-president and member of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor. Upon the death of Samuel Gompers in 1924, Green became president of the AFL and continued to hold that post until his death in 1952.

Green was successful in acquiring federation support for a national unemployment insurance system sponsored largely by employer donations. In 1935 he facilitated the passage of the National Labor Relations Act, to help empower workers' rights to organize and to take part in collective bargaining. Green helped pass the Fair Labor Standards Act, in 1938, which became the first federal law in instituting minimum wages and the 40-hour workweek.