Shepherd focusing on politics

Former president of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Pedro Shepherd has decided to take a permanent back seat in that organisation.

He resigned from his position on January 3 to contest the January 19 general elections as the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate for the St Michael South East constituency.

Although he was unsuccessful in his bid, being soundly whipped by the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) Santia Bradshaw who received 2,786 votes to his 699, Shepherd said he was focused on a political career.

While the BUT’s first vice-president Rudy Lovell is currently acting as interim president, Shepherd’s sudden resignation has resulted in the BUT calling a by-election on February 5.

According to reports, Lovell and Dwayne Goddard are the only two candidates who have expressed an interest in becoming the next president.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Shepherd said his decision to step down from the position in which he served from 2012 to 2018 and again from 2020 until his resignation earlier this month, was a personal choice.

“I will not be going back as president of the BUT. I will serve the BUT in any capacity they deem fit and I have already indicated that to the general secretary and other members of the executive, but I am not going back for any elective positions on the union’s executive. My focus now is on a political career,” Shepherd said.

“My resignation was a personal decision to give BUT full opportunity to have their own leadership who could give full time to the union. The union has a number of demands and I thought it necessary to give somebody the opportunity to carry out that role.”

In reflecting on his term as president, Shepherd said he was disappointed he was unable to attain all the goals he had set during his time in office.

“I don’t have any regrets having stepped away from the BUT other than that I have not really fulfilled a lot of my dreams for the union, and I’m hoping that the current executive can continue to push for the things that I wanted to see the union achieve,” he said.

“I enjoyed serving the union and not being able to serve them at that level now might be a disappointment, but I believe that there are persons there who are capable of carrying forward my vision and probably having their own vision for the union but all in all, life goes on. You can’t remain stagnant, you have to move on and allow other persons to move into those roles and so on.” (RB)