Why Nicholas LaMorte?

Nicholas LaMorte has been elected president
of the CSEA, Long Island Region, Local 1000 AFSCME seven consecutive times. One might ask: Why? 

The answer to that question begins in 1971. Nick’s goal was to be the first in his family to earn a college diploma. He attended college during the day, worked at night as a cleaner at his old high school, and finally earned a degree in Biology from Hofstra University. 

That summer the school district denied him—and only him—one week of paid vacation. Nick took this complaint to the union and began attending meetings. He organized the other night workers to attend the meetings too. His relentless pressure for justice caused the union leaders to resign in mass! 

When the dust settled, the union members turned to Nick LaMorte for answers. He assigned four to be o cers, and he became the union chief negotiator, leading the fight to obtain benefit parity with the teaching staff.  

Negotiations with the school districts around Farmingdale proved to be fruitless. Instead of giving up, Nick changed his strategy. He helped vote out the school board president! In a short time, he negotiated better dental, vision, and life insurance benefits for the night workers—and received his week of paid vacation too. 

That victory launched Nick’s career. He soon became the local CSEA president — 2,500 members. In 1993 he became the CSEA region I president— 50,000 members. His accomplishments are too numerous to list. However, Nick’s proudest achievement was being recognized by the women’s advocacy group, Women on the Job, for his pioneering work on equal pay for equal work. 

Now Nicholas LaMorte is running for the office of President of CSEA in New York. He wants to continue Danny Donahue’s legacy of being the members’ president—ensuring that all union members are well represented and well compensated for the important work you the members do.