He worked on constructing the Panama Canal, then returned to Albany, where he became president of his local union, and later its business manager.
In 1936, he won election as international secretary of the union, and in 1937 additionally treasurer of the insurance company.
[1][2] Gray strongly supported craft unionism, and was a leading advocate of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in its disputes with the new Congress of Industrial Organizations.
In 1946, he was elected as president of the Building and Construction Trade Department of the AFL.
However, his support for the Republican Party and McCarthyism gradually alienated the rest of the labor movement, and in 1960 he was compelled to resign his union posts.