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Guide to the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee Collection, 1973-1998 AIS.2002.02
Arrangement
Metadata Details
- Title
- Mon-Valley Unemployed Committee collection, 1973-1998, Mon Valley Unemployed Committee collection, 1973-1998, Collection of Mon-Valley Unemployed Committee, 1973-1998
- Subject
- Berenick, Carol, Heinz, John, 1938-1991, Lodico, Paul, Oursler, Barney, Specter, Arlen, Mid Mon Valley Unemployment Committee., Mon-Valley Unemployed Committee., National Unemployment Network (U.S.)., Unemployed Council of Southwestern Pennsylvania., Deindustrialization--Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Iron and steel workers--Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Iron and steel workers--Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.)--Political activity, Steel industry and trade--Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Unemployment--Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.)
- Description
- The records of the MVUC cover the period from 1973 to 1998 with the majority of the documents pertaining to their activities from 1982 to 1996. While the collection contains standard meeting minutes, budgets, bylaws, constitutions, newsletters, and correspondences, it also contains job descriptions and service evaluations. The administrative files exist as a "how-to" guide for forming, operating and maintaining an unemployment agency. Mixed within the legislative files are photographs illustrating the MVUC's trip to Washington, D.C., and lobbying efforts in Downtown Pittsburgh. Many documents in the collection pertain to correspondence between the MVUC and state legislators which showcase the organization's commitment to long term unemployment aid. Barney Oursler and Paul Lodico's notes on conferences hosted by MVUC and meetings attended also re-enforce that commitment. Also present in the collection are media correspondence as well as newspaper clippings by and about the MVUC. Clippings from the Committee's newsletter, Mon News, further detail the organization's activities., Mon-Valley Unemployed Committee Collection, 1973-1998, AIS.2002.02, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh., Gift of Joan Maloy Striegel in 2003 from her father Elmer J. Maloy's collection., 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., Finding aid Available in repository and on Internet; Folder level control; http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?type=simple;c=ascead;view=text;subview=outline;didno=US-PPiU-ais200202
- Contributor
- Mon-Valley Unemployed Committee, University of Pittsburgh (depositor)
- Date
- 1973-1998
- Type
- Collection
- Format
- 19.25 (20 1
- Identifier
- oclc:ocn587753110, oclc:587753110, pitt:US-PPiU-ais200202
- Language
- eng
- Relation
- http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?type=simple;c=ascead;view=text;subview=outline;didno=US-PPiU-ais200202
- Coverage
- Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Allegheny County (Pa.), McKeesport (Pa.), Monongahela River Valley (W. Va. and Pa.), Pittsburgh (Pa.)
- Rights
- Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/
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