Allen Brawer

A young staffer in the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, Brawer was taken under the wing of legendary labor leader Jack Bigel who played a pivotal role in solving the Fiscal Crisis of 1975. Bigel, who cobbled together a group of union leaders including Victor Gotbaum and Albert Shanker looked to the likes of his protégé Brawer for an inside ball approach to the city’s budget. This strategy led to the collective decision to use union pension funds to successfully stave off the bankruptcy of New York City.

Mr. Brawer worked especially closely with the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association and its president, for over forty years. They introduced a productivity plan in the early 1980s that improved the wages and working conditions of the city's sanitation workers at the same time that group sought dignity and respect for the job. In his efforts to create awareness of their own history, Brawer pointed to the parallel of labor actions by NYC sanitation workers and their counterparts in Memphis, Tennessee in the winter and spring of 1968.

It was in February of that year that NYC sanitation workers went on what turned into the biggest “Garbage Strike” in history resulting in mountains of trash mixed with snow. Several weeks later the tragic accident and death of two Memphis sanitation workers on the job in Memphis turned into the "I Am a Man" strike that drew the attention -- and ultimate assassination -- of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brawer saw the need to investigate the link between the two strikes. Together with union President Harry Nespoli and several union officials, they traveled to Memphis in November of 2007 and conducted interviews with that city's sanitation union officials including some who had walked with MLK. Returning to New York, Brawer and Nespoli redoubled their efforts to make the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day an official holiday for the union. It was celebrated as such on January 17, 2008 in speeches made at Trinity Church by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other leaders, to a crowd of 500 proud New York City sanitation workers.

Allen Brawer was a man of the people who didn't just believe in fighting the good fight. Besides the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association over the years he worked with the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the Teamsters Union, (local 237), Transport Workers Union, the Communications Workers of America, United Federation of Teachers and the Auto Mechanics Union to name a few. He fought it courageously and with passion. His brothers and sisters were not just the members of unions he worked for, but the larger union of all peoples, what he called "one big union."

Outside of Allen’s work achievements Allen Was Born to Run on every level. He was a 22 time NYC marathon finisher and an avid Bruce Springsteen superfan. Rock 'n roll, Allen!

Allen Brawer is survived by his wife, Laurie Freedman Brawer, and sons, Adam, Benjamin, Max and Jake (Sybil).