NATIONAL Workers Union (NWU) president Vincent Morrison has been booted from office in what has been perceived as an internal coup engineered by his rival, General Secretary Granville Valentine.

Morrison, who has been with the union for the past 45 years and has served as president since 2006, has been sent on retirement and barred from entering the union’s head office at East Street in downtown Kingston. He has been working from an outside location since yesterday.

“I was pushed,” Morrison told the Jamaica Observer yesterday. “I am not there any more… I have had 45 years of service with the union. But, I have a number of options and over the next few says I will be looking at them.”

In the meantime, Valentine appeared in the civil division of the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court at East Street yesterday to face charges that he failed to hand over $15,700 in dues allegedly collected from Port Bustamante truck drivers seeking to join the union in 2009.

The complainant, Kerry Grant, a driver and chief spokesman for the unionised drivers, claims that he had organised more than 200 of his colleagues to join the NWU in 2009. However, they were unable to complete the process because the initial $15,700 in dues, which, he claims, was handed over to Valentine, was not passed over to the union.

Grant also produced a memorandum sent to Valentine on May 20, 2013 by Morrison accusing the general secretary of “flatly refusing” to hand over the money and warning that using union dues “for your personal gain is a dismissible offence”. Valentine is to return to court on March 17.

Morrison admitted yesterday that he had received a letter from Valentine last week, which has sent him into involuntary retirement since his 65th birthday on Sunday.

He accused Valentine of victimisation, pointing out that a number of former presidents of the union have served beyond the age of 65, including his predecessor, Clive Dobson, as well as the former general secretary, Senator Navel Clarke, both of whom retired in their 70s.

Morrison said he will continue to lead the NWU affiliate, the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees, from outside the NWU’s office. But, he added, he expects Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to fulfil a promise made at Sunday’s meeting of the People’s National Party National Executive Council to address the issues at the union.