Eli L. Oliver (b. 1899) was born in Walker, Minnesota and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1918. His career in the labor field as an organizer and teacher began on the staff of the Federal Trade Commission in 1918 and again in 1920. From 1920-21 he was on the faculty of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and taught evenings at the Philadelphia Labor College. The following year he taught at Brookwood Labor College, Katonah, New York. He later worked as director of Labor Bureau, Inc. serving in its Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco offices.

In 1923, Oliver represented the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union in Cleveland on the Joint Bureau of Standards, setting production standards for the garment industry. From 1923-28 he was an organizer for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of American in its Western Department. For nine years, from 1928-37, he directed the research department of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks and represented the United Textile Workers on the Textile Work Assignment Board of the National Recovery Administration from 1934-35. In 1937, he became executive vice-president of Labor's Non-Partisan League. Oliver left the Non-Partisan League in 1940 and became the executive director of the American Labor Party of New York for the 1940 election campaign. Following his work for the American Labor Party, Oliver joined the Labor Relations Branch of the Labor Division of the Office of Production Management (later to become the War Production Board) working as Special Labor Assistant to Sidney Hillman. In 1942, he became head of the Washington, D.C. office of the Labor Bureau of the Middle West and remained there until 1971. While he was with this organization, Oliver was Secretary-Treasurer of Labor's committee for Truman and Barkley in 1948 and Labor's committee for Stevenson and Sparkman in 1952.