I am responding to the attention grabbing headline carried on the front page of the Thursday, April 17, 2014 Nation Newspaper :- “CLARKE HITS OUT”. In that piece, which was accompanied with the additional headline No Solidarity on page 3, the General Secretary of the NUPW has been reported to say that the appointed and assumed “safe” members in the NUPW showed little or no interest in caring about their fellow comrades who were sent home or being sent home in the recent retrenchment exercise. He went on further to indicate that even when the prospect or discussion about striking to support their fellow comrades was put on the table or introduced, many of the appointed and “safe” civil servants hid beneath the burden of having a “mortgage”. I must take strong exception to this story. For the most part, it appears to be some sort of “public relations” face saving gimmick for the General Secretary Dennis Clarke. It also could be an attempt by him to explain away his failure to effectively lead the union in a time of crisis. It is an affront to all members to be “scape goated” for Mr. Clarke’s considerable failings.
I have been on the National Council of the NUPW for more than four years. The National Council is the NUPW’s highest decision making body outside of its Annual Conference. During my tenure, there has been no discussion or even a hint at striking against the current administration.
The only instance at the NUPW when this talk of taking striking action came up was at the meeting with the first batch of retrenched temporary workers, and the General Secretary Dennis Clarke played down the entire idea much to the chagrin of the participants of that forum.
At the meetings of the National Council when the prospect of the retrenchment exercise was predicted by the General Secretary, all of the members of the Council were very concerned, as most of them would have experienced the trauma of the 1991 exercise. Meeting after meeting the National Council would have supported the many “fool hardy “ measures concocted by the General Secretary because all of us thought they could have saved some of the temporary workers from going home.
Contrary to what most people think, Dennis Clarke cannot call any strike action on behalf of the NUPW. His role is to announce that the National Council has taken a decision to “call its members out on strike”. He has no authority to call for any strike action whatsoever. Furthermore, I continue to remind Dennis that he is employed by the membership of the NUPW, not the other way around.
At a time when the other union leader is seeking an apology, it would be appropriate for Dennis to tender one to the entire union’s membership for casting them in a very poor light and also casting aspersions on the characters of the entire “appointed” public service. At this time, the NUPW needs to rebuild its image as a vibrant champion for all public workers. However, I believe that it would be well-nigh impossible to do so with the current General Secretary as its head.
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