November 21, 2023 — Former PEF Executive Board member and Council Leader Ed Swierkowski passed away Nov. 5, 2023, on Long Island, surrounded by family. He represented members of Division 200 at the Department of Labor (DOL).
Swierkowski, 70, of Merrick, leaves behind his wife Jeanne; children Lisa and Lynn (Chris) Dinger; and grandchildren Ryan, Brianna, and Avery, among many other relatives and friends.
Executive Board member Scarlett Ahmed was elected to the board at the same time as Swierkowski in 2015, both representing DOL members downstate. They often rode to Albany together for meetings.
“We had many wonderful, hilarious talks and meals during our long trips back and forth,” she said. During one trip upstate, Ahmed recalls learning her husband was in the hospital and how Swierkowski was ready to drop everything and bring her home. “He offered to drive me all the way back to the city, through a snowstorm, to get me home. That’s a demonstration of how kind Ed was, to everyone.”
As a union leader, Ahmed said he was always accessible.
“He was an old-school rank-and-file union leader who believed in showing up in person to local offices as much as possible to talk to members and local managers to try to solve problems before they got worse,” she said. “He was friendly, funny, and quite possibly the kindest person I’ve ever met. Rest in power and peace, my union brother.”
Fellow Long Island member and now PEF Nurse Organizer Nora Higgins also has fond memories of her interactions with Swierkowski.
“I met Ed when I became the regional coordinator (for Region 12) in 2015,” she said. “He had already been a council leader and involved in the regional PAC. He would consistently show up early to help get things set up at meetings. He would only leave if everything was cleaned up and put away. Ed was the kind of person that would do anything for anybody, even if it meant the shirt off his back. Ed was a great and kind man who will be missed and remembered.”
View Ed Swierkowski’s online obituary page here.
– Kate Stickles