Public Employee Press

Remembering Lenny Allen
Hundreds paid tribute to the deceased Local 2021 president at a memorial service at union headquarters.

District Council 37, dozens of politicians and hundreds of friends said a long goodbye to a loved and respected friend Sept. 21 at the union's memorial for Local 2021 President and Political Action Chair Lenny Allen, who died in May at age 75 after a long battle with cancer.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, AFSCME President Lee Saunders, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, New York City Comptroller John Liu, and lawmakers from the state Senate and Assembly and the City Council saluted Allen with a celebration of his life at DC 37 headquarters, remembering him as a spirited and politically astute leader.

The union hall homegoing included Allen's DC 37 family of longtime friends, local presidents and members of OTB Local 2021, as well as his relatives, children and beloved great-granddaughters Anastasia and Summer.

City Council member Charles Barron presented the family with a proclamation honoring Allen, and on Oct. 30, Speaker Christine Quinn presented his family with a proclamation at City Hall honoring Allen's contributions to the city and working people as a progressive labor leader.

A bold and persuasive advocate

As chair of the DC 37 Political Action Committee, Allen guided the union's Screening Committee in choosing candidates who supported labor's agenda and built relationships with politicians across the aisle in the state Legislature. On Sept. 21, lawmakers, many who considered Allen a true friend, came to the union to pay their respects.

Allen became president of Off-Track Betting Employees Local 2021 in 1999.

For more than a decade, he fought to save the beleaguered betting agency that handed millions of dollars to the city, state and the New York Racing Association, which left little for its own operating costs.

After OTB closed in December 2010, Allen led a hard-fought battle to save the jobs of some 1,000 OTB employees and health coverage for over 880 retirees.

Allen was a bold and persuasive advocate for OTB, lobbying Democrats and Republicans in Albany until the Senate and Assembly passed bills to restore health benefits to OTB retirees and allow Catskill OTB to expand into New York City. He fought for his members and retirees until the day he died.

—Diane S. Williams