[1] In 1893, Frey was elected president of the local International Molders and Foundry Workers Union of North America (IMFWU).

He resigned the position to become treasurer of the New England regional board of the IMFWU in 1898, and a year later was elected vice president of the Massachusetts Federation of Labor.

For example, in 1924 delegates to the IMFWU convention passed resolutions calling for a labor party and industrial unionization in the metal trades.

[3] Green's rabid anti-Communism, his apolitical views, his refusal to consider governmental action as relief for working people's problems, and unwavering support for craft unionism all came from Frey and Woll.

[citation needed] Frey used the Metal Trades Department to shape the American labor movement according to his own views.

When the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers led 5,000 copper miners and craftsmen out on strike in Butte, Montana in 1934, Frey personally intervened.

In order to coordinate the activities of these labor colleges and provide them with a degree of autonomy, the AFL supported the Workers' Education Bureau of America in 1921.

Frey was also not above red-baiting in order to achieve his other goals, and often used his position as the president of the Metal Trades Department to attack progressives, left-wing activists, socialists, communists and their ideas and policies anywhere within the labor movement.

In June 1954, Frey accused Harold Pritchett, president of the International Woodworkers of America, of being a member of the Communist Party.

In the 1930s, left-wing writers accused him of having a relationship with Army Intelligence, working to undercut democratic but progressive labor movements both at home and overseas.

No relationship was ever proven, but Frey returned to active duty at the same rank during World War II—serving in the Army Specialist Reserve.

Frey's conservatism led him to oppose a number of policies strongly supported by the American labor movement today.