The UAW mourns the loss of Stephen I. Schlossberg, a key adviser to three union presidents, who died Dec. 10 at age 90.

Schlossberg, hired by legendary UAW President Walter P. Reuther in 1963 as general counsel of the union, was a key legal and political strategist for the union whose efforts served working people well, UAW President Bob King said.

"Stephen Schlossberg understood that working people need an active voice in politics and in the legal system," King said. "For years, he represented our members in the halls of Congress and in the courts to ensure that they received a fair shake."

A Roanoke, Va., native, he started his labor activism in the 1940s as a representative for the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union. He roamed the South in the days when there was great physical risk involved with being a union representative. Reuther, seeing Schlossberg's consensus-building skills, recruited him to be the union's top lawyer. In the 1970s, he became the union's top lobbyist on Capitol Hill, and also served Presidents Leonard Woodcock and Doug Fraser.

Following his UAW career, he joined the U.S. Labor Department in 1985, drawing the ire of many conservatives in Congress who saw him as too friendly to trade unions. But, as deputy undersecretary for labor-management relations, his real skill was bringing all parties together to reach workable solutions.

Two years later, he resigned to become the Washington director of the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency that promotes the adoption of international labor standards. He focused on issues where it was easier to build a consensus, such as human rights and child labor laws.

Schlossberg also wrote many books on organized labor and the law.

"Stephen Schlossberg's commitment to bringing diverse people together to find solutions to common problems is a quality that is in great demand today," King said. "His passion for workers' needs and rights won him a great deal of respect not only from labor activists but from people on the other side of issues. He will be greatly missed."