ERIE, Penn.–A credit union marketing executive has left his job after criticizing “union bullies” and “UE fools” at the plant the credit union was originally chartered to serve.
Trent Mason, the former chief marketing officer with Widget Financial, was “terminated,” according to the credit union, but Mason said in a blog post that he had instead “resigned” his position, GoErie.com reported. Mason also issued an apology to “hard-working” union members.
Mason made his comments on labor negotiations at a local plant formerly owned by General Electric that is now owned by Wabtec, in a comments section on a local television station website. The credit union was initially founded to serve GE employees.
According to GoErie.com, Mason’s post said Wabtec doesn’t need union stewards to treat employees fairly and “wants to pay fair wages and employ people in our community who would gladly take those jobs that these workers cling to.”
In addition, Mason called the union’s position on wages and working conditions “a really sad situation,” GoErie.com said. “Sadder still, is that a lot of other people’s success is tied to these UE fools.”
‘Closed Minded’
Mason additionally called union members “closed-minded, scared, bullied and brainwashed,” GoErie.com said, adding that Mason also wrote that the union at the plant, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, needs to be broken.
“Sorry, dinosaurs, but your union is the worst kind. UE is a disgusting and corrupt relic of a bygone day and they need to be broken heartily and swiftly before they destroy a great opportunity for our region forever,” Mason wrote, according to the publication.
Widget Financial CEO Gail Cook told GoErie.com Mason’s comments were “unacceptable” and inconsistent with the credit union’s long ties to GE union workers.
“We were the GE credit union when this credit union was founded in 1936. The name changed and there were a number of mergers over the years, but we are still here to serve the Erie community and (GE) employees. Our main headquarters is across the road from the plant,” Cook said.
Cook told GoErie.com she learned of the post late in the day Friday and spoke with Mason by phone late Friday night as she considered the best course of action, the publication said.
“I called him this morning and said that I was terminating his employment,” Cook was quoted as saying.
‘Inappropriate and Disrespectful’
In a Saturday letter to credit union and United Electrical Workers Union members, Cook said that Mason’s views were “inappropriate, disrespectful” and “vastly inconsistent” with the credit union’s values and its founders’ legacy, according to GoErie.com.
GoEriel.com said Mason apologized for his remarks and “any offense I may have personally caused” in another social media post this weekend, addressing the apology to “the hard working members of UE 506.”
“This is a time when tensions are already high in an important labor dispute for the Erie region and there are a lot of good men and women working to find solutions,” Mason said in the blogpost. “Simply put, I let my own ignorance boil over into harsh words that were neither helpful nor productive.”
Mason had worked at Widget Financial for 10 years.