Highest-ranking woman in Mass. AFL-CIO quits

Kathleen Casavant, the highest-ranking woman in the Massachusetts labor movement, has resigned from her position as secretary-treasurer of the state AFL-CIO after settling an internal complaint against the organization's president.

Casavant, 54, was the first woman to be appointed secretary-treasurer of the state labor federation, which has approximately 400,000 members.

''I am looking forward to doing something different with my life," she said. ''I want to pursue other interests such as work in other social justice areas." She resigned Feb. 24 after seven years in office.

Former associates said Casavant's relationship with Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Robert Haynes was strained, and Casavant filed an internal complaint against him.

Dora Camara, 35, of Fall River, said Casavant decided to leave the federation after a meeting with Haynes last year about the state AFL-CIO budget turned ugly and Haynes began shouting. ''I saw her crying," Camara said.

Camara and others said relations in the office were tense after the argument. Camara recently left her job as an assistant to Casavant, claiming disability due to stress.

Casavant said she could not discuss the nature of the complaint or the terms of the agreement.

Haynes acknowledged that there was a disagreement, but he said that Casavant did not cry and that the matter was resolved months before she quit.

''Words were exchanged from 50 feet away, and that was adjudicated, and it was over with," he said. ''There were no problems after that. We were working together fine, and then she decided to leave."

Casavant's appointment in 1998 signaled a growing realization that unions would have to reach out to women if they wished to breathe new life into the flagging labor movement. Now, some are wondering whether her resignation will send the opposite message.

''She was one of the best," said Celia Wcislo, assistant division director of Service Employees International Union Local 1199. ''It is a sad day in labor that it went this way. It sends a bad message."

Currently, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO board has 47 members, including six women. At the time of Casavant's appointment, there were 60 board members, nine of them women. The drop in numbers was due, in part, to the defection of some unions.

The daughter of a school bus driver and a factory painter, Casavant grew up in blue-collar Raynham. She arrived at the AFL-CIO after a 20-year career in textile unions. She is credited with helping to turn the Union of Needletrade, Industrial and Technical Employees into one of the feistiest unions in the state.

Elizabeth Skidmore, business representative for Carpenters Local 1996 in Raymond, N.H., credits Casavant with helping to boost the number of women carpenters in her union to 300, up from 240.

''One of the things she did after she was appointed was to write a letter to all of the unions encouraging them to create women's committees," said Skidmore. ''That made a big difference."

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.