From the steel mill to environmental activism

The rolling smoke from a steel mill encompasses union organizer and musician Joe Uehlein’s life, reflecting the world he grew up in and his current environmental crusade.

In Three Roads: Labor, Music, Ecology, Uehlein shares his life story, including his mill-town youth, his musical aspirations, and his current ecological efforts.

With union activist parents, Uehlein grew up in Lorain and Cleveland, Ohio.  His father was a Steelworkers’ organizer; his mother was active with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the International Union of Electrical Workers.  As a child, he walked the picket line alongside his father during the 116-day 1959 steel strike. With his father strumming the guitar, he learned labor ballads. Eventually, he took up the guitar himself, playing in various youthful rock bands. He worked as a construction Laborer (LIUNA) and in an aluminum factory organized by the steelworkers. Learning that Pennsylvania State University had a labor education program, he enrolled and graduated to full-time union positions.

As a young union organizer, he worked for both the Connecticut AFL-CIO and the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department and was eventually elected as its secretary-treasurer. He developed unique corporate campaign tactics, including a successful overseas effort to save Steelworkers’ jobs at Ravenswood Aluminum.  This included exposing a web of corporate finance around Marc Rich, hiding in Europe to avoid U.S. interdiction for his crimes.  This section of the book reads like a crime novel, including death threats against union activists. 

Uehlein continued to sing, carrying his guitar to protests and union rallies.  The global warming threat deeply troubled him, particularly as he continued his union work.  He found many union leaders reluctant or hostile to discussing the issue. The Steelworkers helped lead a Blue Green Alliance to begin dialogue with environmentalists and leaders.  Even this continued to frustrate Uehlein, so in 2005 he left his union position to found the Labor Network for Sustainability.

There are multiple lessons in this easy reading book. The book is almost a manual for waging corporate campaigns, organizing, and reaching people.  Music is a consistent thread throughout his life, and Uehlein argues forcefully for including the arts in union organizing and building labor spirit.  Leaving behind a comfortable union position to follow his deep moral convictions about the environment prompts the reader to consider thoughtful questions.  How does labor ensure that workers are not simply discarded with economic and ecological changes, but are voices in building a humane and sensible future?

Three Roads is an inviting and thoughtful read, as Uehlein shares his life story, his deep union commitment, and his vision to build a better future, all with a musical soundtrack.