James Duncan (May 5, 1857 – September 14, 1928) was a Scottish American union leader, and president of the Granite Cutters' International Association from 1895 until his death in 1928.

[1] Duncan moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1884, and joined the Granite Cutters' union in that city as well.

Duncan negotiated several contracts in the Deep South which required employers to fire black granite cutters and hire Eiro-American ones.

[7] In 1886, Duncan attended the founding convention of the American Federation of Labor as a delegate of the Granite Cutters' union.

[9] The strike began on March 1, 1900, and was settled on May 16, 1900, after the intervention of former Senator William Andrews Clark (whose home needed granite for its construction).

[2][4][10] Duncan's success in securing the eight-hour day for his members led him to be elected first vice-president of the AFL later that year.

His proposal was not approved by the union's national convention, but he won passage of the jurisdictional expansion in 1905.

[4][5] In 1905, Duncan established the first old-age pension plan for union workers in the United States.

In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to a national commission to study workers' compensation insurance.

[13] In 1918, Wilson chose Duncan to be one of the American trade union delegates to the Paris Peace Conference.

[14] In 1924, Samuel Gompers named Duncan one of the AFL delegates to the Pan-American Federation of Labor in Mexico City.