His father, William Murray, was a Catholic coal miner and union leader who emigrated from Ireland to Scotland prior to his son's birth.

Philip was the oldest boy, and after only a few years of public education, he went to work in the coal mines at 10 to help support the family.

Feeling that a manager had purposefully altered and lowered the weight of the coal he had mined, Murray punched the man and was fired.

Murray married Elizabeth Lavery (the daughter of a miner killed in a mine accident) on September 7, 1910.

Murray, who favored co-operation with management rather than militancy, came to the attention of UMWA President John P. White.

He played a key role in writing the "Bituminous Coal Conservation Act of 1935" (also known as the Guffey-Snyder Act), later struck down by the United States Supreme Court in Carter v. Carter Coal Co.[2] Murray was active both in the CIO and in SWOC, the steelworkers' organizing project.

When the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 7, 1936, Lewis named Murray its chair.

Under Murray, SWOC made a dramatic breakthrough when, on March 2, 1937, it signed a collective bargaining agreement with US Steel.

Little Steel continued to strongly resist unionization, and SWOC made few inroads at mills in the Deep South.

The CIO absorbed a large amount of UMWA's dues at a time when the ongoing Great Depression and employer resistance had stalled the influx of new members.

Lewis soon broke with Franklin D. Roosevelt, over the need for war with Germany and Japan and with his CIO colleagues over the need for government protection, as embodied by the National Labor Relations Act.

All dues flowed to the national office in Pittsburgh, and the right to negotiate contracts and conduct job actions was strictly controlled.

Such actions were justified, Murray argued, in light of the vigorous resistance to the union displayed by steelmakers.

In late 1941, Lewis submitted a "bill" to the CIO demanding repayment for its five years of subsidies and began speaking to Murray only through intermediaries.

On May 25, 1942, he forced the UMWA executive board to remove Murray as vice president and strip him of his union membership.

In 1943, Murray advocated making the Fair Employment Practice Committee a permanent government agency.

Murray also served on the National Defense Mediation Board and a number of other government agencies to help promote the war effort.

In United States v. Congress of Industrial Organizations,[4] the Supreme Court overturned the indictment and found that the publicizing endorsements was not an "expenditure" under the act.

Murray won a doubling of the pension benefit, with the employer continuing to pick up the entire cost.

In November 1951, USWA negotiators asked US Steel for a large 30-cent wage increase, improvement in fringe benefits, and a closed shop.

US Steel and other steelmakers lobbied Congress, the Pentagon and the defense industry heavily, opposing any wage hike.

Congress threatened to overturn any Board agreement, but Truman refused to invoke the Taft–Hartley Act's cooling-off provisions or seek an injunction against the Steelworkers.

After a preliminary hearing went in the government's favor, a federal district court judge enjoined the President from seizing the steel mills.

Circuit, sitting en banc, granted a stay of the injunction pending a decision by the Supreme Court to hear the case.

On June 2, 1952, Justice Hugo Black, writing for a 6-3 majority in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, ruled that the president lacked the authority to seize the steel mills.

Steel supplies finally began to dwindle, and Murray feared the public opinion might turn against the union for impeding the war effort.

Truman began preparations to draft the steelworkers into the military under the provisions of Section 18 of the Selective Service Act of 1948, further weakening Murray's resolve to see the strike through.

Wages and benefits rose but not as much as the WSB had recommended, but Murray and others considered the strike a terrific win.