Craig A. Ford is the national president of NUHHCE/AFSCME, president of District 1199C, and secretary-treasurer of District 1199J.
Ford was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Philadelphia and he graduated from the Philadelphia Public Schools. He continued his education at the University of Pittsburgh and after graduation enrolled in Rutgers University, where earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration. In addition, he received several educational certifications from his continuing studies at The George Meany Center for Labor Studies, Saint Joseph’s University, New York University, Harvard University and the American Arbitration Association, Pennsylvania.
In 1992 he became an organizer for the NUHHCE 1199J to organize workers in the private and public sectors in the healthcare industry. While working out of the New Jersey office, he also joined in organizing campaigns in Atlanta, Chicago, Memphis and Washington, D.C. In addition, he has worked as an organizer in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio and California. His efforts helped NUHHCE gain thousands of new members and enabled thousands to have union representation.
In 1994, Craig Ford was reassigned to Philadelphia District 1199C, NUHHCE, where he became an administrative organizer in the hospital division. He handled collective bargaining agreements, negotiating terms and conditions of the members’ working conditions, due process hearings involving grievances and arbitrations. In 2000, he served as the state director and founder of the NUHHCE 1199J, New Jersey Home Health Care Union, where he assisted in creating an affiliation between USWA, Local 306-CFC and NUHHCE 1199J. He also co-authored the 2002 Proclamation of the Hudson County Ordinance “living wage” for all health care providers.
In 2004 he was appointed vice president of the hospital division of District 1199J. In 2006, he was elected as secretary of the NUHHCE, and in 2010 he was appointed and then elected as secretary-treasurer of District 1199J.
He served as vice president of the Central Labor Board Council of Bergen County, New Jersey, and is currently chairman of the Aberdeen Solomon David Scholarship Fund. He is director of the 1199J Political Action Committee, Benefit Fund Trustee of the District 1199J Training and Development Fund and Trustee of the New Jersey Pension Fund. He formerly served on the District 1199C Pension Fund, as trustee of the Philadelphia Legal Service Plan, trustee of District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund and the Philadelphia Vicinity Heath Care Fund.
He is a board member of the NJ Labor Advisory to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, member of the National Association of Securities Professionals; member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; member of Alumni Association of Rutgers University and Pittsburg University; member of New Jersey Peace Action; member of New Jersey State AFL-CIO; member of IUC Industrial Union Council of New Jersey; member of the CBTU of New Jersey; Jubilee Interfaith of New Jersey; Central Labor Councils of Mercer, Passaic, West Essex Hudson and Union Counties; founder and a board member of A. Phillip Randolph Institute of New Jersey in Hudson County.
In 2020 he was confirmed by the NJ State Senate to serve on the Board of the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission as a state commissioner.