She served as general secretary-treasurer of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) from 1985 to 1994.
[2] In October 1974, she was hired by UE as a full-time organizer and relocated to western Massachusetts where helped win several key victories.
A year later, she was relocated to Charleston, South Carolina, where UE was engaged in a prolonged and ultimately successful campaign to win recognition at a General Electric turbine plant.
Her father was an Irish-born business agent for Local 601 in East Pittsburgh and one of the union's founders.
He was accused by anti-communist priest Charles Owen Rice of having ties to the Communist Party.