John Green (unionist)
John Green (November 15, 1896 – February 20, 1957) was a Scottish-born American labor union leader.
Born in Clydebank in Scotland,[1] Green emigrated to the United States in 1923. He settled in Camden, New Jersey, and became a sheet metalworker at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. In 1933, he organized the first union local at the yard. This rapidly grew, and in 1935, it became the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, with Green elected as its founding president.[2]
Green affiliated the new union with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and he became a vice-president of the federation. From 1940, he served on the National Defense Advisory Commission, and from 1942 on the management and labor committee of the War Manpower Commission. In 1948, he was awarded the President's Certificate of Merit for his service.[2]
In 1945, Green represented the CIO at the founding conference of the World Federation of Trade Unions, in London.[2] He left the Marine and Shipbuilding Workers in 1951, to become chairman of the new United Railroad Workers of America.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ Fink, Gary (1984). Biographical Dictionary of American Labor. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313228655.
- ^ a b c "John Green, Former Marine Union Head And C. I. O. Vice President, Dies at 60". New York Times. February 21, 1957.
- ^ "C.I.O. to organize railroad workers". New York Times. January 14, 1951.