Richard Maroko Receives Peggy Browning Award

Hotel Trades Council Recording Secretary and General Counsel Richard Maroko has been named as a recipient of the Peggy Browning Award. In receiving this honor, which is named after the late Margaret Browning, a prominent labor attorney and member of the National Labor Relations Board, Maroko joins other giants of labor including Baseball Players Association Founder Marvin Miller, former NYS Governor Basil Patterson, former NYS AFL-CIO President Dennis Hughes, and OPEIU President and HTC Vice President Richard Lanigan.

The Peggy Browning Award is a prestigious honor. It is presented annually to social justice champions who have distinguished themselves with passion and dedication to the rights and needs of workers and their families. The award program is a part of the Peggy Browning Fund, which is a non-profit organization that educates and inspires the next generation of advocates for workplace justice.

The Peggy Browning Fund achieves its praiseworthy goals through fellowships, workers’ rights conferences, regional workshops, networking and other activities and programs. The Peggy Browning Fund was established in 1997 in memory of Margaret A. Browning, who had the distinction of being the first union lawyer to be appointed as a member of the National Labor Relations Board.

There is much good work performed by the Peggy Browning Fund. Last year, as one example, it awarded 81 law students with 10-week Summer Fellowships working for unions, worker centers, non-profit organizations and union-side law firms that advocate for the rights of workers and their families. The event honoring Maroko raised money for worthy causes like these that are administered by the Peggy Browning Fund. Maroko had two co-honorees, Matthew D. Loeb, President of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and renowned arbitrator and mediator Marlene Gold.

Attorney Vincent F. Pitta presented the Peggy Browning Award to Maroko, saying he was proud to be part of the evening joining in a salute to HTC’s General Counsel.

"It is an honor to receive the 2019 Peggy Browning Award alongside two other honorees, Matt Loeb and Marlene Gold,” Maroko said. “Having three Peggy Browning Fellows among my staff in the Hotel Trades Council legal department — Alyssa Tramposch, Amy Bokerman and Gideon Martin, I know firsthand how valuable the Fund is to labor. A strong union contract is the one true pathway to the middle class for working families, and I am fortunate to have been able to negotiate contracts such as the GRIWA and IWA alongside HTC President Peter Ward for the hotel and casino workers in New York and New Jersey."

Hotel Trades Council Recording Secretary and General Counsel Richard Maroko is congratulated on receiving the Peggy Browning Award. Among those present are Joe Laurie, Founder and President of the Peggy Browning Fund, James Wood, award recipient Matt Loeb, President of IATSE, award recipient Marlene Gold, previous award recipient Evelyn Haro, Maroko and Attorney Vincent F. Pitta.

Hotel Trades Council Recording Secretary and General Counsel Richard Maroko accepting the 2019 Peggy Browning Award.