Cushing-Gavin Awards • 1967-2025

CGA

A salute to the labor-relations community in Massachusetts

Friday, December 5, 2025 @ 6:00 PM • IBEW Local 103 Function Hall

Thank You Sponsors!

Your ongoing support has allowed us to honor exceptional professionals from our regional labor relations community since 1967.

CGA History

Perhaps the best-known single project of the Labor Guild is its annual award for outstanding service in the eastern Massachusetts labor relations community. The program was launched in 1967, largely at the prompting of the Guild Chaplain, Father Mortimer (Mort) Gavin, S.J. As a professional mediator, Fr. Mort understood the value of top-notch practitioners, so he created an awards program aimed to:

provide well-deserved recognition to individual practitioners for excellence and singular service in labor-management affairs;
offer both inspiration and education to the general labor-management community by showcasing outstanding contributors;
bring greater visibility to the Guild and all its programs;
nurture a more bipartisan atmosphere within the Labor Guild,
contribute critical financial resources to support the Guild’s work.

Naming the Awards after Boston’s highly popular and respected Archbishop Richard Cushing was a natural choice, as he was the founder and an essential advocate for the Guild in the post-war years. The son of a Boston Elevated Railway blacksmith, Cushing worked as a janitor throughout his high school and college years. His working-class roots and life experience informed his long public record of advocating for a robust and responsible labor movement while being sensitive to the legitimate needs of the business community. His involvement in the early years of the Awards Dinner immediately afforded it substantial stature within the community. More telling of the Dinner’s long-term success was the spirit of mutuality he introduced at the first Awards Dinner.

That first dinner attracted over 700 people. Decades later, CGA Dinners still draw hundreds of guests. Yet, as Guild Chaplain Fr. Edward Boyle wrote in 1995: “Numbers alone cannot be the accurate gauge of what this event represents to the labor-management community. That can only be registered in the hearts and minds of those attending, and the fresh commitments and deepened sensitivities nurtured by this event.”

“We all tend to live in our own special isolation, building walls about ourselves, and considering only the problems that are closest to each of us individually. Tonight we sit together in a spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood, recognizing that most of our difficulties we share with each other, most of our ideals we pursue together, and most of our progress will be made together or it will not be made at all.”

– Richard Cardinal Cushing, 1967

Past Awardees

2024 Awardees

Elizabeth Neumeier

Father Edward F. Boyle Award (Auxiliary)

Arbitrator

Roland N. Goff

Labor Attorney Award

Director of Strategic Campaigns and Legal Counsel
The Massachusetts Nurses Association

Jim Pinkham

Labor Award

Utility Workers Union of America Local 369

Henry Vitale, C.P.A.

Management Award

Executive Director and Treasurer
Boston Water and Sewer Commission

2023 Awardees

2022 Awardees

2021 Awardees

2020 Awardees

2019 Awardees

2018 Awardees

2017 Awardees

2016 Awardees

2015 Awardees

2014 Awardees

2013 Awardees

2012 Awardees

2011 Awardees

Year	Labor Award	Boyle Award	Management Award	Labor/Management Counsel Award
2010	Louis G. Rasetta, Int’l Union Of Operating Engineers, Local #4	Nancy Peace, Arbitrator Consultant	John Messervy, AIA, Partners Healthcare	Burton E. Rosenthal, Esq., Segal Roitman, LLP
2009	Martin Callaghan, Boston Newspaper Printing Pressmen’s Union Local #3	Suzanne M. Bump, MA Secretary Of Labor & Workplace Development	William F. Dowd, National Grid	James F. Grosso, Esq., O’Reilly, Grosso & Gross
2008	Rocio Saenz, SEIU #615	Robert B. Mckersie, MIT/Sloan School Of Management	Robert J. Lewis, Boston College	Joseph G. Sandulli, Esq., Sandulli Grace, P.C.
2007	Michael Monahan, IBEW Local 103	Edward J. Boyle, S.J., Archdiocean Labor Guild	Diane Crimmins, Town Of Belmont	Philip G. Boyle, Esq., Morgan, Brown & Joy
2006	Jay Hurley, Iron Workers #7	L. Christine Oliver, MD, OSH, MGH	Frederick A. Laskey, MWRA	Ira Sills, Esq., Segal, Roitman & Coleman
2005	Kathleen Kelley, AFT	Lawrence Holden, Arbitrator	Joanne Salines, Partners Healthcare	Paul Kingston, Esq., Rubin & Rudman
2004	Kevin Cotter, Plumbers #12	John Coughlin, Blue Cross/Blue Shield	Patricia Day, Massport	E. David Wanger, Esq., Angoff, Goldman, et al.
2003	Robert Banks, Ironworkers #7	David Grafton, OSHA	Virginia Tisei, Boston Schools	John O’Reilly, III, O’Reilly Grosso & Gross
2002	Kathleen A. Casavant, Mass. AFL-CIO	Joseph Kane, NLRB	Gregory Thornton Esq., Boston Globe	Alan J. Mcdonald, Esq., Mcdonald And Associates
2001	Paul Hannon, Steelworkers	Joan Dolan, Arbitrator	Richard Meyer, Massport	Nelson Ross, Esq., Ropes & Gray
2000	Chuck Monahan, IBEW Local 103	Elaine Bernard, HTUP	Thomas J. Gunning, Building Trades Employers	Joanne Goldstein, Esq., General Counsel, UWUA
1999	Phillip Trombly, Brotherhood, UWUA	Susan R. Brown, Arbitrator	Kenneth Paradis, Bechtel/Parsons/Brinkerhof	Robert Holland, Esq., Deutsch, Williams, et al.
1998	William Ryan, IOUE #4	Thomas Kochan, MIT	Steven Grossman, Mass. Envelope	Wendy Bittner, Esq., Bittner Law
1997	Joseph Dart, Mass. Building Trades	Gerard Gomez, FMCS	Douglas Macdonaid, MWRA	Katherine Hesse, Esq., Murphy, Hesse, et al.
1996	Donald Wrightman, UWUA	Roberta Golick, Arbitrator	Timothy Manning, Harvard University	Paul Kelly, Esq., Segal, Roitman & Coleman
1995	John Phinney, UFCW #1445	Paul Mcdevitt, Modern Assistance	Theodore Brodie, N.E. Insulation	Michael Lehane, Esq., Murphy, Hesse, et al.
1994	Carol Knox, UAW Reg 9A	Edward F. Eagan, OSHA	David Perini, Perini Corporation	Donald J. Siegel, Esq., Segal, Roitman & Coleman
1993	Robert J. Haynes, Mass. AFL-CIO	R. Robert Rodwell, United Way	John J. Higgins, Boston Edison Company	Ellen C. Kearns, Esq., Kearns & Rubin
1992	Joseph Nigro, Boston Building Trades Council	Helen Moreschi, Mass. Department Of Industrial Accidents	Michael Metzler, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital	Warren Pyle, Esq., Angoff, Goldman, et al.
1991	James Grande, Operating Engineers, Apprentice Training Program	Diane Zaar Cochran, Board Of Conciliation And Arbitration	Jack Shaughnessy, Shaughnessy Company	William Joy, Sr., Esq., Morgan, Brown & Joy
1990	Robert Petronella, UFCW	Paul Eustace, Mass. Secretary Of Labor	John J. Cohane, Boston Gas Company	Augustus Camelio, Esq., AFSCME Council #93
1989	Kristine Rondeau, AFSCME	Michael F. Walsh, NLRB	John L. Ritchie, Trial Court	Arthur P. Murphy, Esq., Murphy, Hesse, et al.
1988	Thomas Mclntyre, Bricklayers International	John J. Martin, FMCS	Anthony Sapienza, Grieco Bros., Inc.	Arthur Flamm, Esq., Flamm & Birmingham
1987	Joseph Bonavita, AFSCME Council #93	Richard M. Reilly, AAA	Thomas Sullivan, Greater Boston PHCC	Allan W. Drachman, Esq., Deutsch, Williams, et al.
1986	James E. Mahoney, OPEIU Local #6	Arnold M. Zack, Arbitrator	John J. Manning, Boston Herald	Robert M. Segal, Esq., Segal, Roitman, & Coleman.
1985	Arthur Osborn, Mass. AFL-CIO	Sherman G. Sass, Martin E. Segal Co.	Paul F. Dempsey, Mass. Hospital Association	Alvin M. Glazerman, Esq., Edwards & Angell.
1984	Joseph Faherty, Utility Workers #387	Wilfrid Rodgers, The Boston Globe	William Vaughn, III, The Stop & Shop Company	Robert Manning, Esq., Angoff, Goldman, et al.
1983	Thomas Evers,State Building Trades	Robert J. Halloran, Blue Cross-Blue Shield	John R. Mckeon, State Office Employee Relations	Allan A. Tepper, Esq., Snyder, Tepper & Comen
1982	Michael Botelho, AFSCME Council #93	James Healy, Arbitrator, Harvard University	Harold Raybould, Quincy Market & Cold Storage	James Grady, Esq., Grady, Dumont & Dwyer
1981	Thomas Climo, Sugar Workers #166, Ila	Marcia Greenbaum, Arbitrator	Arthur Vershbow, Modern Die & Machine
1980	John A. Callahan, State AFL-CIO	John E. Higgins, Arbitrator	Malcolm Mackinnon, The Boston Globe
1979	John F. O’Malley, AFL-CIO Region 8	Robert Fuchs, NLRB	Bertram Creese, Leather Manufacturers Association
1978	Frank Every, Machinists Dist. Lodge #38	John T. Dunlop, Harvard University, Arbitrator	Thomas Gunning, Building Trades Employers
1977	Lawrence C. Sullivan, Boston Labor Council	Charles Myers, MIT Arbitrator	John Murphy Bird & Son Inc.
1976	Richard Coleman Esq., Segal, Roitman & Coleman	Richard Goggin, Federal Mediation Service	William O. Murdock, John Hancock
1975	Paul Mcnamara, United Transportation	John Church, AAA	Sheldon Appel, Perkit Box Company
1974	Joseph Stefani, Hotel & Restaurant Workers	William J. Fallen, Arbitrator	Peter Killelea, Boston Gas Company
1973	Erika Pinault, AFSCME	Howard Myers, Northeastern University	Thomas L.P. O’Donnell, Attorney, Arbitrator, Ropes & Gray
1972	Edward Moore, Paperworkers	Paul Mulkern, U.S. Department Of Labor	Thomas Cathcart, Eastern Gas & Fuel
1971	Clifton Caldwell, Meat Cutters	David Grodsky, State Med. & Council	E. Leonard Kane, Raytheon Company
1970	Fred Ramsey, Construction	Wendell Macdonaid, BLS-USDOL	Eugene Barnes, Boston Newspaper Publishers
1969	Thomas Owens, Brewery Workers	Joseph O’Donnell, Harvard, HTUP	Joel Leighton, Mass. AGC
1968	Val Murphy Utility Workers, Boston Labor Council	Donald White, Boston College, Arbitrator	David Fine, The Stop & Shop Companies
1967	Donn Berry, IBEW #103	Daniel Hurley, FMCS	John Hennessy, Boston Edison