Philip Murray: Union Man

The picture on the front cover of this book depicts the US Steel plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. This plant is one of the few major steel mills left standing and still in production in America. Fittingly, this mill, a virtual loner sitting in the heart of the rust belt, reflects in its enduring, majestic solidity the spirit of Philip Murray, a union warrior who, during the years of struggle, was the vanguard of the battle to establish the organized labor movement in America. Capping a sixty-year span during which he worked his way up through the union ranks to president of the CIO in 1940 (holding that position until he died in 1952), it was Philip Murray who brought trade unionism to the threshold of institutional greatness in America.