The New Jersey State AFL-CIO congratulates brothers Craig A. Ford, left in photo above, and Richard Maroko, at right, upon their state Senate confirmations to key positions that will let them continue their achievements on behalf of New Jersey’s working families.
Maroko takes his place on the NJ Transit Board of Directors while Ford is now a commissioner on the Public Employment Relations Commission. Both were nominated by Gov. Phil Murphy.
These two men are highly qualified and the state AFL-CIO is proud of the work they have done, and will do. They have the state federation’s 100 percent support.
About these civic-minded men, from their official biographies:
Maroko serves as recording secretary and general counsel of the New York Hotel & Motel Trades Council, AFL-CIO, and general counsel and executive vice president of Local 6, UNITE HERE. He practiced labor and employment law in New Jersey and New York before coming to the HTC in 2002 as the council's in-house lawyer, where he created and manages the legal department. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers University, earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and later earned a master’s degree in Labor and Employment Law with distinction from Georgetown University. He is an adjunct professor of Labor and Employment Law at the City University of New York. In 2009 he was elected Vice President of the Hotel Trades Council.
In May 2010, Ford was appointed secretary-treasurer of District 1199J after the seat became open because of a retirement, and in 2011, he was officially elected. Since 2005, he served as vice president of the Hospital Division of District 1199J and elected as National Secretary to the Executive Board of National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees. With a master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA), he is currently a trustee of the Benefit, Pension & Title Holding Co. Board of Trustees, and Training and Development Fund of District 1199J. Ford is the director of the 1199J Political Action Committee, chairperson for the Aberdeen S. David Memorial Scholarship Fund, a Trustee Board member of Hudson County Central Labor Council, and a board member of New Jersey Labor Advisory Board to the United Negro College Fund. He is a member of the New Jersey chapters of Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and The A. Philip Randolph Institute of Essex and Hudson counties, the New Jersey Working Family Alliance, The New Jersey Democrats, The COPE Committee of Central Labor Council of Bergen County, the National Association of Securities Professionals’ New York Chapter, and an Executive Board member of Kappa XI Lambda (Wall Street) Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.