Norman E Brown

Norman E. Brown has been legislative director of the NY State Council of Machinists since December 2004. His prior experience includes fifteen years as an elected officer (in progressively higher posts, local chairman, and then general chairman) of his local union, Machinists Local Lodge #754. The union represents skilled workers in the public and private sectors. He was journeyman machinist from 1973 on at such firms as Fairchild Republic Aircraft, Berger Instrument Company, General Mechatronics, Macor Inc., and the Long Island Rail Road. He worked as a journeyman machinist in the Diesel Shop at LIRR until his election as a full-time union delegate in 1999. He served his apprenticeship at Berger Instrument Company and developed a specialty in layout, tooling, and quality control in subsequent years. Mr. Brown holds a Master of Science in Labor Relations from the University of Massachusetts. He has completed specialized training at the national Machinists Union’s William Winpisinger Center for Labor Education in Maryland, in fields such as arbitration, bargaining, organizing, communications, politics and economics. A scholar of transportation policy, he has participated in campaigns to advance the interests of riders and the economic development of the metropolitan area as a whole. He has a thorough understanding of mass transit and freight rail operations, ranging from maintenance issues on the shop floor to the macro-economics of transportation. He has served as an elected representative of workers at both the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad and has been an active participant in the bargaining and legislative activities of the Long Island Rail Road Labor Council and the Metro-North Labor Council. A resident of Brooklyn, Mr. Brown is married and has two grown children. In his local community, he is active as a youth soccer coach.