JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

New NUGFW head calls for more member participation

by

251 days ago
20241031
Newly elected NUGFW president Christopher Streete, fourth from left, and members of his new executive take the oath off office from election’s supervisor Luna Wright, left, during a swearing in ceremony yesterday.

Newly elected NUGFW president Christopher Streete, fourth from left, and members of his new executive take the oath off office from election’s supervisor Luna Wright, left, during a swearing in ceremony yesterday.

VASHTI SINGH

The new pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers (NUGFW), Christo­pher Streete, is urg­ing mem­bers to get more in­volved in the busi­ness of the union.

In his in­au­gur­al speech yes­ter­day, af­ter be­ing sworn in as the new head of the or­gan­i­sa­tion, Streete said, “We en­cour­age every­one to get in­volved in the af­fairs of the union—every one of you. There are things I can do on your be­half, but there are al­so mat­ters that re­quire the in­volve­ment of my ex­ec­u­tive team. How­ev­er, for cer­tain ini­tia­tives that will ben­e­fit you, your ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion is es­sen­tial.”

He gave a com­mit­ment to in­clu­sive­ness, sig­nalling a new di­rec­tion for the union.

“We want this four-year pe­ri­od, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing Car­ni­val sea­son, to be all-in­clu­sive. This ex­ec­u­tive is com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing that the rank and file of this or­gan­i­sa­tion will be all-in­clu­sive for the next four years,” he said.

“Com­rades, we have the priv­i­lege and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to serve a great or­gan­i­sa­tion—one that was es­tab­lished pri­mar­i­ly to look af­ter the wel­fare of the work­ing class and, more gen­er­al­ly, the poor and down­trod­den. That’s our pur­pose.”

He com­mend­ed his pre­de­ces­sor, for­mer pres­i­dent-gen­er­al James Lam­bert, with whom he had served for over 16 years.

“This was not about us; it was about the or­gan­i­sa­tion and its mem­bers’ rep­re­sen­ta­tion. I want to take a mo­ment to thank the for­mer pres­i­dent-gen­er­al, com­rade James Lam­bert, for the 16 years of ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice he has giv­en to this or­gan­i­sa­tion. Com­rade Lam­bert, we are grate­ful for your con­tri­bu­tions. How­ev­er, we must now move for­ward,” he said.

Streete and his 15-mem­ber ex­ec­u­tive were sworn in by elec­tions su­per­vi­sor Lu­na Wright yes­ter­day.

Af­ter sit­ting at the helm for 16 years, Lam­bert was of­fi­cial­ly re­moved as pres­i­dent-gen­er­al fol­low­ing the union’s na­tion­al elec­tions on Mon­day.

The elec­tions marked the first time that three teams com­pet­ed with full 15-can­di­date slates.

Lam­bert re­ceived 1,981 votes, while Streete re­ceived 2,329.

Guardian Me­dia at­tempt­ed to con­tact Lam­bert but calls to his phone went unan­swered.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored