Andrea Brooks was one of the most remarkable union leaders and activists of her generation.
She became part of the union movement many years ago in Indianapolis. Brooks was working for the Department of Veterans Affairs at Ft. Benjamin Harrison when she joined the American Federation of Government Employees. She understood from the start how vital the union was for winning justice and fairness in the workplace. She would later recall that she decided to become a steward with her AFGE local after she had trained several men at the VA who went on to become her supervisors, and she knew something was wrong with that picture.
It wasn't long before she was recognized in her union as "an ardent fighter for civil, women's and human rights in the workplace," as AFGE President John Gage would later describe her. Indeed, when she signed up with the Government Employees at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, it was the beginning of a career that would take Brooks to the highest reaches of the union movement. Her AFGE sisters and brothers would eventually choose her to be chief steward, vice-president, secretary-treasurer, executive vice-president, and then president for 10 years of AFGE Local 490 at the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Los Angeles.
At the height of her career, she was best known as AFGE's national vice-president for the Women and Fair Practices Department and a member of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council. She was widely respected throughout the union movement for her hard work on several of the Executive Council's most important committees including Organizing, Civil and Human Rights, Community Partnerships, Public Affairs, and Women Workers.
But beyond that, Brooks' name became a synonym for the good causes she believed in and fought for: civil rights, human rights, women's rights. She declared that she wanted to help mobilize a civil rights movement of every race, culture, orientation and gender identity. She did exactly that. She also said, "I want AFGE to be known as the civil rights union"—and thanks in large part to her efforts, the union she loved is today on the frontlines of every major civil rights struggle in America.
Brooks championed voters’ rights and voter protection, first at AFGE and then on behalf of the AFL-CIO and the entire labor movement – inspiring, together with her brother John Gage, what became one of the AFL-CIO’s most important 2008 election contributions.
We grieve the loss of Andrea Brooks. We already miss the warmth, common sense and fiery passion for justice she brought to the Executive Council; and we honor the legacy of more justice and fairness and equality she left behind for us.