CONFLICTING views on whether the People’s National Party (PNP) has authority to adjudicate on disputes in the National Workers’ Union (NWU) have come from two former senior members of the union who have taken opposite sides in the party’s presidential race between Mark Golding and Lisa Hanna.

Former NWU President Vincent Morrison is encouraging the PNP to step in and deal with troubling issues in the union. But Danny Roberts, a former NWU vice-president, insists that the party has no such power.

Morrison, who supports Hanna, made his call against the background of backlash Hanna received from the union when her campaign team last week asked that a list of delegates presented by NWU General Secretary Granville Valentine be put to strict scrutiny. The delegates will be able to vote in the PNP presidential election this Saturday.

Hanna’s campaign leader, Senator Donna Scott Mottley, had noted that Section 16 of the Trade Union Act requires the NWU to file with the Registrar General, on or before the first day of August each year, a list of its members as of that date .

She said her attempts to obtain a copy of the document, to ensure that the delegates’ list is in conformity with the membership list, have been futile.

In a request to PNP General Secretary Julian Robinson, Scott Mottley said that if there is proof that the delegates were not properly registered with the union, they should be removed from the list.

The move received heavy flak from Valentine and Roberts, who said the PNP had no authority to deal with NWU matters. Both men blasted Hanna, and Roberts told her to withdraw from the leadership race and apologise to the party for “trying to disenfranchise the entire delegates’ slate of the National Workers Union for spurious reasons and, by extension, the wider labour movement”.

He said Hanna needed to be schooled about the historical context within which political unionism was developed, and the relationship between labour and the parties, and prepare herself properly for a future leadership bid.

According to Roberts, the problems which have affected the NWU over recent years will have to be sorted out by the delegates and members of the union. He also said the PNP has a protocol with the NWU, which speaks to how the union should handle its differences, and that protocol should be activated instead.

“With respect to these internal problems of the NWU, nobody outside of the delegates have any locus standi to interfere in the internal affairs of the union. You can’t premise your objection on the basis of the Trade Union Act, and you have failed to recognise that there is a letter from the registrar general saying that the union is in good standing,” stated Roberts, who supports Golding.

However, this week, Morrison — who was kicked out of the union while serving as president in 2014, in a coup which led to Valentine taking over the leadership, and the withdrawal of several veteran members of the executive — said that the party should seek to resolve the issues plaguing the union since his ouster.

“I have been silent for some time about what is going on there, but I don’t intend to remain quiet any longer, because there are workers there who are not being treated properly, and I myself have been a victim,” he told the Observer.

He commended Hanna’s team for raising concerns about the union’s voters’ list and choice of the electors.

“I think Lisa and her team should be commended for seeking accountability for the selection of the delegates who will represent the union in the poll on Saturday,” Morrison said.

He alleged that outgoing PNP president and Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips had “backed off” the issue after it was raised by his team during Peter Bunting’s challenge for the presidency last year. The NWU backed Bunting then, but that was not enough to give him victory in a close race.

Morrison said he was surprised at Roberts’ “hypocrisy”, as he is fully aware of the leadership issues affecting the NWU under Valentine’s leadership, and that there is a need to have them addressed by the party.

“After 45 years of distinguished service, I was dismissed as president and I have not even been paid outstanding salary or allowances. There are workers there who have to wait for up to three months to be paid, and are being victimised when they protest, and Danny shouldn’t be a hypocrite in terms of what has been happening there,” Morrison said.

“There are three or four cases already before the courts, but within the union there is no structure to effectively deal with it,” Morrison said.

Last year, Morrison also contested the validity of the delegates’ list submitted by the union to the party’s National Executive Council. The list was investigated by the PNP secretariat, but to no avail.

The current issue was referred to the party’s Appeals Committee by Robinson, but the committee declared that the list presented by Valentine should be used.