ALBANY — A union leader of the old school, Danny Donohue liked to describe himself as a “truck driver from Brooklyn” well into his 26-year tenure leading the Civil Service Employees Association, one of New York’s most powerful labor groups.
Donohue died on Aug. 10 at age 81, according to a family obituary. In a release, CSEA praised him as “a towering figure in the labor movement, a fearless advocate for working people and a beloved friend to so many people.”
The longest-serving president in CSEA’s history began his career in 1965 as an attendant at Central Islip Psychiatric Center, where in 1975 he was first elected to lead the local as a write-in candidate. He took his first statewide post with CSEA in 1988, and in 1994 won the first of seven terms as president of the union, which currently represents more than 250,000 primarily blue-collar workers across dozens of state and local agencies and authorities.
Donohue was not shy about using the union’s membership and resources to sway elections, and he was comfortable with national as well as international leaders: As reported in a 1997 profile in the Times Union, the walls of his spacious Washington Avenue office bore photos of Donohue breakfasting with then-President Bill Clinton, attending a cocktail reception with former President Jimmy Carter, posing with Irish Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, and sharing a stage with South African President Nelson Mandela…