William Patrick Ludwig OAM (25 May 1934 – 11 April 2022[1]) was an Australian trade union official, who served as National President of the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), with a brief interruption, from 1989 to 2017.
Ludwig was born in Longreach, Queensland on 25 May 1934, and was educated at Marist College in the Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove.
He began his working life as a shearer and remained in the pastoral industry until 1971 when he became an employee of the AWU.
In 1982 Ludwig was elected as the South Western District Secretary of the Queensland Branch of the AWU, a position he held until he was elected as the Secretary of the Queensland Branch in 1988.
In the 1997 Australia Day Honours he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to Industrial Relations through The Australian Workers' Union"[4] and in 2001 he was awarded the Centenary Medal.