WITH the incumbent Clive Dobson pulling out of the race for president of the National Workers Union (NWU), a keen contest is expected between aspirants Danny Roberts and Vincent Morrison.

Morrison, a vice-president and island supervisor of the union, is regarded as the most powerful man within the organisation because of his dual positions.

Roberts, also a vice-president of the union, and president of its white collar affiliate, the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisor Employees (UCASE), is a vice-president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU).

Meanwhile, seven people have been nominated to fill the four posts for vice-president, and there will also be elections for financial secretary, trustees as well as four persons – two officers and two delegates – to the 33-member General Executive Council (GEC) at the NWU’s annual congress on September 30.

Dobson, who has been ailing, was unavailable to respond to questions about his last-minute withdrawal from the presidency.

But NWU sources said that in discussions with the two aspirants to succeed him, Dobson, who has led the union for the past 17 years, was convinced that he should relinquish the job, and in return continue to serve in an advisory position.

Dobson had accused both presidential aspirants of “stabbing” him in the back by failing to honour a commitment made to him last October not to challenge if he sought re-election. Roberts said that he would withdraw if Morrison did. But Morrison refused to withdraw his nomination.

Morrison said he made the decision to seek the presidency after “tremendous thought” and discussions with delegates and felt that he was deserving of the position after 37 years of service to the union.

“I think that I have done a good job well over the years,” said Morrison, who has largely ran the union over the past year while Dobson recovered from a kidney problem.

He said that if elected president, he would concentrate on business trade unionism, based on a business plan which has been drafted to lessen the union’s insistence on dues from members. He admitted that while there has been general growth in membership in the service and construction sectors within the trade union movement, there has been decline in a number of other areas including mining, sugar and manufacturing.

Roberts, in the meantime, has insisted that not only is he against too much power concentrating in Morrison’s hands as island supervisor and president, but that he also feels that he (Roberts) is best equipped to lead the union into the globalised environment of the 21st century.

“I think I can provide the kind of leadership that can concentrate on that kind of direction,” he said.