Anthony Adamo Biography
Southern Region President Anthony Adamo has been a proud member of our union since he was first hired in 1999 at SUNY New Paltz at the age of 19. Twenty years later, he is honored to be representing our CSEA membership across seven counties as Southern Region president.
Raised in a union household, it wasn’t long after his hiring that Adamo stepped up as a CSEA activist with SUNY New Paltz Local 610, starting out as a shop steward and grievance representative. Soon, he was named grievance chair for his local and appointed as a delegate to the Ulster County Central Labor Council. In 2005, Adamo was appointed 2ndvice president of his local and later became executive vice president during that same term. In 2009, Adamo was elected local president, a position he held until being sworn in as Southern Region president on July 24, 2019.
During his years as local president, Adamo served in a number of other roles within our union, including joining the Southern Region executive board as 3rdvice president in 2013 and serving as an AFSCME delegate. After a number of years on the region executive board, Adamo was serving as executive vice president when he stepped up as region president following the retirement of Billy Riccaldo.
A firm believer in the role political action plays in making our union strong, Adamo served as Southern Region Political Action Committee vice chair before later accepting an appointment by CSEA President Danny Donohue to serve as chair of the Statewide Political Action Committee. He is proud to have served in that role during a period of time when CSEA member mobilization helped defeat a number of initiatives harmful to working people, most notably the successful fight opposing a New York State Constitutional Convention.
An electrician by trade, Adamo feels strongly about the various opportunities our union offers our members for career growth and advancement. He is a graduate of the NYS/CSEA Partnership’s first Applied Skills Trade Program class for electricians, a two-year program offered to our state members to train our members in the skilled trades.
During his time as local president at SUNY New Paltz, Adamo has worked to build the local’s profile, both on campus and in the New Paltz community. He is a founding member of the SUNY New Paltz Labor Coalition, which has strengthened relations among the different unions representing workers at the college. He’s very proud to have spearheaded a CSEA-sponsored holiday toy drive at the college, which over the years has grown to become one of the biggest events of its kind in the New Paltz area.
In his spare time, Adamo is an avid fan of sports (especially baseball) and enjoys supporting various charitable causes across the Hudson Valley. He lives in New Paltz with his family.