Jouhaux, Léon Henri (1879-1954)

French trade unionist, the most prominent non-communist trade-union leader in France in the 20th century. Jouhaux served as secretary general of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) 1909-47 and played a key role in the negotiations with Léon Blum's Popular Front government that gave French workers paid holidays and the 40-hour week. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1951 for his role as cofounder of the International Confederation of Free Labour Unions.

Active in the Matchworkers' Union and influenced by the anarcho-syndicalist thinking then predominant amongst militant workers in France, Jouhaux had by 1914 come to reject its central tenets - advocacy of the general strike to achieve social revolution and anti-militarism. After World War I, he succeeded in retaining most of the CGT's membership under his reformist leadership, only a small minority going into the communist-led breakaway. However, following the communist unions' reunification with the CGT in 1935, Jouhaux led a non-communist minority out of the CGT in 1947 at the onset of the Cold War. He then served as president of Workers' Power (FO) from 1948 until his death.

As a leading trade unionist Jouhaux was interned by the Vichy authorities during World War II.