Workers' Education Bureau of America (1921 - 1951) was an organization established to assist labor colleges and other worker training centers involved in the American labor movement.

The Workers' Education Bureau of America (WEB) was founded in 1921 by a group of United States-based unionists and educators. Its first officers were James H. Maurer

James H. Maurer

James Hudson "Jim" Maurer was a prominent American trade unionist who twice ran for the office of Vice President of the United States on the ticket of the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...

 (Socialist leader of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor) as President and Spencer Miller as Secretary-Treasurer. The executive board in 1921 included a number of trade union progressives including John Brophy

John Brophy (labor)

John Brophy was an important figure in the United Mine Workers of America in the 1920s and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the 1930s and 1940s. He was the last major challenger to John L...

 of the United Mine Workers

United Mine Workers

The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada...

, Fannia Cohn

Fannia Cohn

Fannia Mary Cohn was a leading figure in the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the workers education movement in the United States during the first half of the 20th century....

 of the ILGWU, and J. B. Salutsky. The WEB's first convention was held at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

WEB received financial, political, and consultative support from American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

 (AFL) leaders, including Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...

, William Green

William Green (labor leader)

William Green was an American trade union leader. Green is best remembered for serving as the President of the American Federation of Labor from 1924 to 1952.-Early years:...

, and Matthew Woll

Matthew Woll

Matthew Woll was president of the International Photo-Engravers Union of North America from 1906 to 1929, an American Federation of Labor vice president from 1919 to 1955 and an AFL-CIO vice president from 1955 to 1956.-Early life:Born in Luxembourg in 1880 to Michael and Janette Woll, the Roman...

. The AFL slowly built a majority on the WEB board of directors. The AFL then asserted a conservative influence on the organization's activities, which included withdrawing support from left-wing and progressive labor colleges and other training organizations as well as supporting only those curricula which supported the AFL's apolitical agenda and craft unionism

Craft unionism

Craft unionism refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in by class or skill level...

.

In 1951, WEB was formally integrated into the AFL (and later, after the merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations

Congress of Industrial Organizations

The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...

, the AFL-CIO) as its Education Department.

In 2003, the AFL-CIO transferred the duties and programs of the Education Department to the George Meany Center-National Labor College

National Labor College

The National Labor College is the only accredited higher education institution in the United States devoted exclusively to educating union members, leaders and staff. It was established as a training center by the AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills...

.

Reference: Workers' Education in the United States (New York: Workers Education Bureau, 1921), http://books.google.com/books?id=85QWAAAAIAAJ&dq