Orear was one of the founders of the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee in the Chicago area. He was instrumental in building an activist core inside the large Armour plant (later Local #347) and served as an organizer and editor of #347's newsletters. He came on the UPWA staff in 1946 as an assistant in the organization department under Frank Ellis and later A.T. Stephens. In the late 1940's through the 1960's Orear edited the Packinghouse Worker. He oversaw general public relations for the UPWA and continued in this capacity with the Amalgamated Meat Cutters after the 1968 merger. As of 1983 he headed the Illinois Labor History Society.
