On Eve of Union Convention, CWA Top Brass Rocked by Internal Report of Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Member & Staff Abuse
"...he is not fit to be the President of our Union..."
A top union official running to become the next president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) is said to be “not fit to be our International President” in a shocking internal union report written by a number of CWA union officials comprising the Emergency Mutual Respect Committee.
In the report, unanimously approved by nine officers from different locals across the nation, the union committee state they believe there is “overwhelming evidence” that Ed Mooney, an International Vice President based in Philadelphia, “has a long-standing pattern of violations of Mutual Respect and a failure to abide by the CWA Constitution.”
The CWA is a 600,000 member union that originated as a telephone workers’ union, that represents workers in industries such as news media, airlines, broadcast and cable television, public service, higher education and health care, manufacturing, as well as telecommunications and the committee’s report comes just before the union’s mid-July convention in St. Louis.
“It was reported that VP Mooney told a staff member he wanted to execute her and, in a separate incident, that she would be lucky if he put one flower on her grave if she died.” — CWA Emergency Mutual Respect Committee report
Numerous instances of abuse reported
In the nine-page report, first published by Payday Report in mid June, CWA International Vice President Ed Mooney’s behavior was described as “abusive, belittling, abrupt, sarcastic, insulting, hyper-aggressive, humiliating, unpredictable, contemptuous, hostile, demeaning, condescending, toxic, and disparaging.”
In citing numerous witness examples, the committee reported, among other allegations against Mooney1:
An openly gay witness reported that VP Mooney yelled at him and called him a “c**ksucking f****t”. VP Mooney never apologized for the incident. The witness reported that VP Mooney continues to regularly use “c**ksucker” as an insult in reference to other people.
It was reported by multiple witnesses that VP Mooney regularly used the term “c*nt” to refer to women in the Union and beyond, including women on the Executive Board, local elected officers, and publicly elected officials.
It was reported by multiple local officers in multiple conversations that VP Mooney repeatedly suggested they punch their Union members in the face to resolve conflicts.
Two former staff members who worked under VP Mooney said he made disparaging or racist comments about their appearance.
Multiple witnesses reported that VP Mooney repeatedly disparaged passenger service agent members. One witness reported he said that passenger service agents were “retarded and so I gave them the retarded staff rep.” It was reported by another witness that VP Mooney stated in a different meeting that passenger service agents were “the worst and so I gave them the worst staff rep.” A former local officer stated that VP Mooney called the passenger service agents members in her local “horrible,” “crooks and thieves,” “whack jobs,” and “lazy and worthless”. It is important to note that the majority of the passenger service members referred to in this way by VP Mooney are people of color.
A former employee reported that VP Mooney told a local officer in a serious tone to “take her (the employee) out back and shoot her in the head.”
A witness reported that VP Mooney threatened to punch a member of his staff in the face if she used a space heater again in the office
And more…
“Based on the many incidents reported to us directly and the language in the CWA Policy on Mutual Respect and the CWA Constitution,” the committee report states, “we believe there is overwhelming evidence that VP Mooney has a long-standing pattern of violations of Mutual Respect and a failure to abide by the CWA Constitution”
A coverup?
In July, new executive officers will be elected at the CWA’s convention. Back in February, retiring CWA President Chris Shelton has endorsed CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens to replace him. Mooney, though, is also running to replace Shelton.
The committee report, surprisingly, also “implicates the current CWA president, Chris Shelton, and his chosen successor, 51-year-old CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens, who is running for CWA President against both Mooney and CWA Vice President Claude Cummings,” according to Payday Report’s Mike Elk.
“Documents obtained by Payday Report show that Shelton, as well as CWA Secretary-Treasurer Steffens, who were constitutionally required to investigate these charges, failed to do so,” Elk writes.
“Not only did the two CWA leaders fail to investigate,” Elk reported, “but after two local union leaders complained in writing about Mooney’s encouragement to engage in violence against dissident union members, both Shelton and Steffens allowed Mooney to stay in power despite explicit provisions in the CWA’s union constitution that allowed them to remove Mooney.”
In the 2020 letter referenced by Elk (in full here), two female local union officers wrote to CWA President Chris Shelton and Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens complaining about Mooney’s behavior, including his advising the two local leaders to go to another CWA Area Vice President and “punch her the f___ out,” as well as making “an inappropriate sexual hand gesture simulating self-ejaculation.”
No charges?
As the CWA has specific rules regarding the type of behavior the committee outlines, and charges could be filed against Mooney, the committee does not go that far.
Rather, in its report, the committee members stresses their point that they do not believe Mooney should become president of the union.
“Although a formal charge for violating the CWA Mutual Respect Policy can be brought under our Constitution, that is not what we are doing here,” the committee report states, “We are local leaders who, based on what we learned and in our own judgment, do not think VP Mooney should become CWA President.”
“Some members of our committee considered VP Mooney a qualified candidate they might support prior to hearing the witnesses’ statements,” the committee states.
The question whether formal union charges will be made against Mooney may not be answered before the union meets for its St. Louis convention.
It is also possible that whomever wins the election to become CWA’s next president, if no charges are filed against Mooney—or, if he wins the presidency—the report and the issues raised could just be ignored.
Emphasis added.