RUDYARD “Ruddy” Spencer, whose political star continues to rise, is set to succeed the late Hugh Lawson Shearer in yet another enclave, as president of the powerful Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), one of the most important affiliates of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Officers of the BITU’s Managing Executive Committee (MEC) huddled Friday and agreed to nominate Spencer to succeed Shearer in the vacant top job, and Senator Dwight Nelson as senior vice-president, the slot Spencer now occupies.

Spencer will be officially elected as the next president of the trade union when delegates meet later this year at a special congress, largely to rubber stamp the unanimous nomination of the MEC. Under the union’s constitution, Shearer who died July 5, 2004, must be replaced within 90 days of the vacancy.

The MEC, the highest decision-making body outside of the congress, which is next due in 2005, is comprised of the union’s three trustees – Lady Bustamante, attorney-at-law Chris Bovell and former member of parliament St Clair Shirley; the three current vice-presidents – Spencer, Nelson and Pearnel Charles; and general-secretary, George Fyffe.

Nelson, currently a vice-president of the BITU and president of the umbrella Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU), confirmed Sunday Observer information that Spencer had got the nod from the MEC and his own promotion to senior vice-president.

Nelson, in the news recently as the articulate leader of the island’s trade union movement who spearheaded the historic Memorandum of Understanding with the Government that saved 15,000 public sector jobs, in exchange for a freeze on new pay rises between 2004 and 2006, had wanted Shearer’s job, the Sunday Observer source said.

The source said that although Nelson was recognised as the union’s “bright star”, the fact that he left to work in industrial relations with the ICD Group of Companies for some four years in the mid-90s, might have mitigated against him getting the job.

But contacted, Nelson conceded that there was potential conflict of interest between the positions of president of the BITU and president of the JCTU. He also disclosed that the officers had agreed among themselves that they should avoid a down-and-dirty slugfest, similar to what had taken place in the JLP.

The JLP is undergoing a traumatic transition process, following Edward Seaga’s June 29 announcement that he would quit as party leader in November this year.

“By opting out of the presidency of the BITU, I am allowing myself the opportunity to concentrate on the wider national trade union imperatives, throuigh the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions,” Nelson said. Pearnel Charles, the Sunday Observer source said, had also shown an interest in the presidency but backed off when he realised that he would not get the support of his colleagues in the union.

Charles declined to comment on the issue, but said that he understood that the senior vice-president was the automatic choice as successor.

Spencer will be only the third president of the 66-year-old BITU, after founder and national hero, Sir Alexander Bustamante who was succeeded after his death in 1977 by Shearer. He has been acting as president since Shearer’s death.

Spencer, the son of a former senior BITU officer in Westmoreland, C J Spencer, succeeded Shearer in South-east Clarendon in 1993. He was among those paying tribute to his late boss at his State Funeral on July 18. Prior to becoming an MP, he was a member of the JLP’s slate of senators. He is also the JLP’s spokesman on labour.