Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The Bank­ing, In­sur­ance and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Union (BIG­WU) is deny­ing claims that the union’s cen­tral ex­ec­u­tive has col­lapsed amid in­ter­nal lead­er­ship dis­putes.

In a mem­ber­ship no­tice, BIG­WU said it strong­ly re­ject­ed these as­ser­tions, de­scrib­ing them as “ma­li­cious lies” be­ing spread by five “dis­grun­tled se­nior mem­bers” in­tent on “mis­rep­re­sent­ing the union’s op­er­a­tions” and “un­der­min­ing its con­sti­tu­tion­al au­thor­i­ty.”

The union ac­cused the group of feed­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion to the me­dia and show­ing “ut­ter con­tempt for the de­ci­sions of the gen­er­al coun­cil,” say­ing their ac­tions were “a de­lib­er­ate at­tempt to sow con­fu­sion and dis­cred­it the lead­er­ship.”

The re­sponse fol­lows a Guardian Me­dia re­port last week in which un­named se­nior union mem­bers al­leged that a break­down in lead­er­ship had left the ex­ec­u­tive “re­duced to just two func­tion­ing of­fi­cers,” and that key de­ci­sions tak­en in re­cent months may be “legal­ly void” and open to ju­di­cial re­view.

The re­port al­so sug­gest­ed deep di­vi­sions with­in the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s lead­er­ship ranks.

In its com­mu­ni­ca­tion to mem­bers, how­ev­er, BIG­WU said it re­mains “ful­ly func­tion­al and con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly sound,” stress­ing that all de­ci­sions con­tin­ue to be made trans­par­ent­ly through the gen­er­al coun­cil, the union’s high­est de­ci­sion-mak­ing body.

“The au­thor­i­ty of the gen­er­al coun­cil is clear­ly record­ed in all GC min­utes,” the state­ment read.

“The sug­ges­tion of a col­lapse is not based on fact but on the man­u­fac­tured claims of a very small mi­nor­i­ty.”

The union al­so dis­missed spec­u­la­tion that its de­ci­sions could be legal­ly chal­lenged as “pure con­jec­ture,” in­sist­ing that all ac­tions are valid and com­pli­ant with the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s con­sti­tu­tion and na­tion­al law.

BIG­WU pres­i­dent Don De­venish con­demned the con­duct of the five mem­bers, say­ing their ac­tions were mis­lead­ing and dam­ag­ing to the union’s rep­u­ta­tion.

“By spread­ing false­hoods and un­der­min­ing the de­ci­sions of the union’s high­est gov­ern­ing body, they have dragged the good name of BIG­WU in­to dis­re­pute,” De­venish said.

He urged mem­bers and the wider pub­lic to “re­ject the ma­li­cious lies of these ma­lig­nant” mem­bers and reaf­firm their trust in BIG­WU’s “doc­u­ment­ed, de­mo­c­ra­t­ic, and un­shake­able process­es.”

The union said the five mem­bers’ con­duct and motvies will be raised at the next gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing.