Richard N. Brown

Today the union movement mourns the loss of Richard N. Brown, who served as president of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) for the past 11 years.  A strong and tenacious voice for federal employees, Brown will be missed by the members of the union he led and by all those who fight daily for working Americans.

Brown began his leadership in the union movement as president of NFFE Local 2109 in Watervliet, New York, where he worked manufacturing military ordinates for the US Army.  He went on to serve as vice president of the NFFE before assuming the office of president in 1998.  In this capacity, he played a crucial role in the United Department of Defense Workers Coalition, fighting to shield Defense Department workers’ bargaining rights against threats from the Bush administration. 

A trade unionist through and through, Brown died yesterday in Arlington, Virginia.  He was 47 years old and is survived by his father, two siblings, and his fiancée, Cate McGregor.

As national president of NFFE, Rick steered the organization out of a tumultuous period in the 1990s, and into prosperity.  The union saddled with debt when he took office as national president, Rick orchestrated NFFE’s affiliation with the Machinists Union (IAMAW), and reorganized internally to get the organization’s books in the black, setting the course for renewed prosperity.  In recent years, NFFE was seeing the fruits of that prosperity.  The union’s membership has been on the rise and the organization has been realizing success in the policy arena. 

Rick was a trade unionist at heart.  He came from a union family and maintained membership in NFFE-IAM and the Laborers Union, the latter being a membership he maintained after leaving construction to become a machinist.  Rick was a strong advocate for federal employees.  Never one to back down, Rick was a strong presence in the fight against several federal workforce initiatives aimed at contracting out federal government jobs and eliminating federal employees’ unions.  His most impressive work was done in opposition to NSPS.  Just last week, Rick gave impassioned testimony in opposition to NSPS before the Task Group of the Defense Business Board, a panel that is conducting a review of the personnel system.