Mon-Valley Unemployed Committee

The Mon-Valley Unemployed Committee (MVUC) was formed in 1982 to assist the newly unemployed as a result of the closure of many of the region's steel mills. Following the recession of 1981-1982, the region's steel mills began to outsource their labor in an effort to cut costs. The outsourcing of the region's steel mills devastated the Monongahela (Mon) River Valley because many of the workers did not have the skills or education to find equally well paying work elsewhere. While the government set up programs, such as the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) to aid workers through subsidizing their education and helping them find new employment, this aid did little to help middle aged and elderly unemployed steelworkers feed their families or pay their mortgage. Also, due to the region's massive influx of unemployed steelworkers, finding any employment became nearly impossible. The stress of unemployment adversely affected the entire community. Sensing the Mon Valley's need for a localized organization specifically aimed at aiding the Mon Valley's unemployed, the MVUC centralized the organization in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, an area utterly devastated by the closure of US Steel National Tube Works. Two community organizers, Barney Oursler and Paul Lodico, were chosen by the Steering Committee to lead the organization. Funded by the United Way, private donations, and membership dues ($1/year for unemployed, $5/year for employed), the committee set to work establishing a hotline to answer questions ranging from utility shut-offs to day care options while parents looked for work. Aided by local food banks, churches, and shelters, the MVUC became the go to place for navigating the confusion and disorientation that result from long-term unemployment. While MVUC was able to aid the Mon Valley's unemployed temporarily, Oursler and Lodico realized that unemployment aid lay mostly in the hands of state and national legislators. What began as small trips to downtown Pittsburgh to protest the closure of the Dorothy 6 Steel Mills evolved into busloads of members traveling to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress to extend TAA benefits and end Welfare Liens. In the early 1990s, the MVUC formed their most effective protest, the Council to Remove Welfare Liens (CRWL), as a response to the ever present threat of liens on the property of the unemployed. MVUC also lobbied for the Pennsylvania Low Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) funds. As of 2009, the group was still aiding the Mon Valley's unemployed.