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Union Movement Mourns Andrea Brooks |
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| Andrea Brooks |
The union movement is mourning the loss of AFGE vice president and AFL-CIO Executive Council member Andrea Brooks, 65, who died yesterday.
AFGE President John Gage said:
We are deeply saddened by the tremendous loss of a great friend to AFGE, the labor movement and to me personally. Andrea was an ardent fighter for civil, women’s and human rights in the workplace, and she will be sorely missed.
During the 2008 elections, Brooks led AFGE’s successful voter protection campaign and worked closely with several national organizations, including the AFL-CIO and Rock the Vote.
She was elected as AFGE’s vice president for women and fair practices in 2000.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called Brooks “a strong union leader and committed advocate for lifting up the voices of all people, particularly working women and people of color across the nation.”
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, who worked with Brooks closely on voting rights and election protection in the 2008 elections, said:
Andrea was never willing to be silent on the issue of worker justice. She was a passionate crusader for the rights of all working people, especially women, and she worked tirelessly to advance women within the labor community and the workforce.
Brooks began her union career at Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, rising through the ranks of AFGE while working at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Brooks saw early on the importance of a union at the workplace. After training several men at the VA who went on to become her supervisors, she decided to become a steward with her AFGE local to clear up “what’s wrong with this picture.”
She soon rose to become chief steward, then vice president, secretary-treasurer, executive vice president and, finally, president for 10 years of AFGE Local 490 at the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Los Angeles.
Brooks also served as vice president of the California State AFL-CIO and helped to formulate the first federal sector subcommittee at the Los Angeles Central Labor Council.
As AFGE’s vice president for the union’s women’s and fair practices departments, Brooks worked to move her union into the forefront of civil rights activism, saying:
I want AFGE to be known as the civil rights union.
Brooks said she believed that too often minorities allowed others to define what is a ”minority right.” She said she was looking to mobilize “a civil rights movement” of all races and cultures.
Brooks is survived by three adult children and six grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
3 Comments
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44 years. Andrea served. Who has ever done more? Who has ever befriended more working women and men? Never carried a grudge or said no. Not just a leader but a good human being.
You were loved and you will be missed, Andrea.
Andrea was a long time friend and mentor. When I first started in the Labor Movement, she said John, people who get into the labor movement to get rich or famous will be solely disappointed and will fall by the wayside. But if you joined labor to help your fellow human beings and you get inspiration from those actions, this is the job for you. She said this is God’s work as you must sacrifice your time and labor to fight to improve things for your brothers and sisters, whether they know it or not.
God Bless you Andrea for all you gave to me and to all the other Brothers and Sisters out there. I know you’re in Heaven today!
Andrea advised me early on about the Union struggle and the commitment one makes when stepping on this side of the aisle. She made me understand that it takes a special type of person to persevere in fighting for rights. She walked her talk and set a standard that no one can emulate. I felt honored to have known such an avid activist and to have had the opportunity to walk a part of this journey with her. She will be missed but the lessons she taught me and others will carry on. Her legendary, trail setting memory is intact in the one place that meant a lot to her…her union!!! Yes, she is in Heaven now, but I thank God she was able to be here with us and this Union for 40+ years and able to leave us with such a profound legacy!
Joyce E Henderson
VP, Local 2297 AFGE