But one member who wasn't present at the AGM was former president, Gerald Henry. Henry made it clear last week that he was boycotting the event because he felt the union must take care of the corruption within itself before it can demand accountability from the government. He also believed that forces within the union, namely the council of management, were working against him - orchestrating his removal from the presidential seat to make way for the former first VP to take the helm.
And that's exactly what happened. But Henry is now speaking out against what he claims was a clear attempt to undermine the post of the president by constantly outvoting his proposals, directing him not to speak to the media, and rushing an AGM in the middle of a trade dispute.
Gerald Henry, Former President, PSU
"It has been difficult throughout the two years and it got worse towards the end of this second year that a lot of undermining was taking place and I tried to do as much as I could for membership because that's what I was there for, to do as much as I can for the membership. However most of the proposals that I had put forward were soundly defeated most of the time. One of them that really got to me a lot was the proposal for the union to provide the government by way of the CEO at the time at the ministry of the public service, Dr Martinez, with the change to the government workers regulations that would have secured those open vote workers that were terminated and all the other CEO's had agreed to provide for those regulations."
"However when I presented that to the council of management, it was defeated and I was disturbed by it that I presented it to them again a second time telling them this was an opportunity to protect our open vote workers and I was pretty much chastised not to bring up the issue again, I was already told that PSU would not have anything to do with that."
"At one point I was wondering where the sentiment and the feeling of being undermined and disrespected was coming from. Of course that was proven when the announcement was made that the first VP was interested in running for president and I know a lot of persons were very much upset by the fact that each and every day that passed that they weren't seeing the president and I'm not talking about myself because it's just the post of the president, they wanted to see that post to be the one being interviewed and be on the media and to explain to the membership what is happening. As you remembered it was a decision by the council that it would be the first VP who would be addressing the membership and the media."
"We can see now why that was the case because in the midst in such a critical juncture in the union being that we are in such a heavy negotiation and now we'll insist on having an AGM and the constitution of the union calls for a AGM every year and it doesn't have to have a specific date it has to be on and I know a lot of unions were questioning why we would proceed to have an AGM at this point of time when we are at such a critical point in negotiations as a result of the salary cut and increment freeze matter."
