Meet the new executive of the Christian Workers Union

Last Thursday, the outspoken attorney, Audrey Matura-Shepherd joined the ranks of the unions and was approved as President by all fourteen entities of the haemorrhaging Christian Workers Union. And on Saturday, Matura-Shepherd was formally endorsed by the members in attendance and the rest of the executive was endorsed as follows: Vice-President Basil Brannon, Organizer Stephany Gongora and Treasurer Amy Forte, along with three elected trustees, two of whom were actually elected, Antonio Heredia and Brian Duncan. Unusually, however, after three recounts it was established that there was a tie for the third position between Deon Pitter of the stevedores and Maureen Mahmud Reyes, who received one hundred and eighty-one votes each. Before the election, a motion was passed to allow voting by secret ballot and by proxy, that is, representatives of the thirteen groups making up the union as well as individual voters, since due to financial issues the union was never going to make quorum for the meeting. Matura-Shepherd discusses the election result.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, President, CWU

Audrey Matura-Shepherd

“We needed to fill three posts for the trustees. There were four persons contesting the post for the trustees and unfortunately we had a tie. So we had two definitely who were elected: Elias and Mister Duncan. But we needed to fill the post of one more trustee which was Miss Mahmud and Mister Ras Pitters who tied for that one with a hundred and eighty-one votes. So that means that we have to have another election to break that tie or either one of them would need to forfeit if they want. But we don’t have a problem with doing an election because we already have a sitting executive; it does not cripple us from continuing with our work.”