Joe Hueter was born in Philadelphia in 1907 of German immigrant parents. His introduction to the textile industry came at the age of 20 when he went to work as a weaver in a Philadelphia pile fabric plant. His introduction to unionism came in 1933 when he and two others began to organize their plant in reaction to wage cuts which had brought the wages of skilled weavers down to less than twenty dollars a week after a high of over one hundred dollars a week. He was elected business agent of his newly-formed local and led several strikes in the mid-1930s. In 1939 he was elected Manager of the Philadelphia Joint Board when the then manager, William Pollock, was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the TWUA. Hueter served as manager of the Joint Board until his retirement in 1972. He was elected to the TWUA Executive Council in 1948 and re-elected in 1950. In 1952 he ran for Executive Vice President and was defeated. He was again elected to the Executive Council in 1956 and thereafter was re-elected at each convention until his retirement.
