Craig Livingston joined Local 371 American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSME) out of college at this first job. That job ended abruptly when he was drafted. More than a year later, he was sent to Vietnam where he drove trucks. Upon his return to the United States from Vietnam, he immediately enrolled at Rutgers Law School. This was during an era of social and political change in America. Rutgers Law was then also known as “The Peoples’ Electric Law School”. At Rutgers he took clinics which enabled him to handle cases for workers.
General Motors
Livington’s most important client was Local 736 of United Auto Workers representing 3,000 G.M. workers. When Local 736 UAW workers were told that the plant was closing, Livingston worked with the Union leaders and local GM management. Together, they bought the plant from GM. Using an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), the new company negotiated an agreement to sell all of its output to GM over a six-year period. Over the next years, Livingston worked on many other buyouts saving union jobs in deeply troubled industries, mostly in the Northeast and Mid-West. Some of those companies have survived to this day. They are now flourishing in the world economy of the 21st Century.
Livingston has written about Unions use of ESOPs in “Organized Labor and Employee Ownership,” Journal of Employer Ownership, Law and Finance, Vol. 3,, No.2, (1991), and “Employee Takeovers,” Alan Hyde and Craig Livingston, Rutgers Law Review, Vol. 41, No. 4 (1989). Livingston represented the International Association of Machinists, the IUE/CWA, the United Steelworkers of America, the United Auto Workers, the United Food and Commercial Workers and other unions in these transactions.
NJ COSH
In 2003, Mr. Livingston founded and became President of the New Jersey COSH, the Advisory Council on Health and Safety, a coalition of Labor Unions, workers’ lawyers and workers’ doctors. New Jersey COSH fights for pro-worker legislation. They write friend of the court briefs to the New Jersey Supreme Court on issues that impact workers. Most importantly, COSH fights for the appointment of Judges of Workers’ Compensation who have real-world experience and understand the impact that profound injuries and diseases have on working people New Jersey COSH has grown over two decades to be the leading legal voice for injured workers in New Jersey thru its efforts that those of its political action arm, WORKPAC. Livingston stepped aside as COSH President in June of 2020 to devote more time and energy to Workers Equity.
Craig Livingston is designated by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Board Certified Workers’ Compensation Law Attorney. He specializes in Labor Law and Workers Compensation cases involving catastrophic injuries and occupational diseases including Mesothelioma.
- Rutgers University, Newark Law School, J.D. 1972
- Bard College, Annandale, NY – B.A. 1966
