In Memoriam: Former Labor Guild President Richard Heffernan

We mourn the passing of longtime Guilder and former Labor Guild President Richard Heffernan.

After serving in the Army, Richard returned home to work for New England Telephone from 1958 through 1986. He became active in I.B.E.W. Local 2222 holding positions including Building Steward, Chief Steward, Business Agent and Local Union President. His responsibilities included contract negotiation on both a local and national level with the Bell System/AT&T. From 1978-1986 he held the positions of Massachusetts District Vice President and Executive Vice President for the Industrial Union Department for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. From 1978-1983 he was an Executive board member of the Labor Guild before becoming President of The Guild from 1983-1984.

In 1986, Richard retired from Verizon (Formerly NE Telephone) to begin a second career as an Administrative Judge of the Department of Industrial Accidents for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he used his experience in grievance processing, arbitration, contract negotiations, and labor relations deciding workers compensation cases. As he noted in an interview in 2010, “he carries into every proceeding he presides over the same philosophical approach – at the end of the day, when one leaves his courtroom, although one party may be disappointed by the outcome, they were given deference to their concerns and they received a ‘fair shake’ from him.” He retired in November 2020 after 34 years at the DIA.