#SpeakingOut – Read the NUPW Constitution Mr McDowall and Ms Murray

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

by Margaret D. Gill

I offer another view on some aspects of the stories carried about the NUPW in your June 9th news. My views are my own and arise from concern over what is transpiring in the news about the NUPW.

I was the one actually speaking at a meeting of the NUPW when Mr. Akani McDowall came into the room and asked loudly several times what this was all about. I stopped speaking as it made no sense to try to outshout him. After he and others interacted about his behaviour he left.  Fortunately he had brought the media along.

The view stated by your reporter and carried in the headlines that the police had to be called in to quell an uproar or keep the peace is more editorialising than factual.

I heard the call for the police to be called in and it was done by members of the NUPW Council. Ms Murray entered the meeting and called in her lawyers and they all refused to leave the Council meeting despite protracted calls for them to leave and over the shouts by Mr. McDowall as reported by you.

The police were successful in asking the lawyer to leave, but were unable to get Ms Murray to follow her. Your photographs speak above the noise of the narrative that accompanies it.

Most of the people, in the room, including the NUPW Trustee, Ms Marva Alleyne, sat astounded at the loud and unruly behaviour of the two people who seemed intent on a meeting not happening.

These disruptions to the Council meeting happened between  three o’clock and minutes to five.  The Council with great difficulty  moved a motion that it will no doubt speak to and then the meeting was adjourned.

Perhaps your reporter had left the room by that time and felt constrained to report the ending as only adjourned till another time.

I am actually disinterested as to who becomes either General Secretary or President of the NUPW though I care deeply about the union and its membership. Because I was demonstrating my interest in the happenings in my society in every public medium  in Barbados and several in the region and internationally long before Ms Murray left primary school, I will not defend that right.

She is right to defend her relevance.  As she reminded me across the room, I taught her at the UWI, I expect nothing less.  I suspect my continued relevance in respect of social engagement is equally valid.

I also suspect I taught her about process and the magisterial stance one must take in delivering argument.  The tone is important to being a credible witness for one’s own position, as is adequate research.

I encourage Ms Murray, your reporters and Mr. McDowall to see what the NUPW Constitution says about what shall happen after April 30th of any year if elections for Executive does not happen before that date.