Callender calls for PSA elections

FORMER Public Services Association (PSA) executive member Nixon Callender has called for elections to be held by the union.

He made this call at a news conference in Woodbrook on September 25.

Callender, the leader of the United Sentinels slate, said  the PSA will not hold no elections on December 14 because no election committee has been appointed.

He added that September 15 was the deadline date for such a committee to be appointed.

Callender said this date represented the end of a 90-day period which the PSA's constitution allows for an election committee to be formed in an election year to supervise the conduct of elections.

He recalled a similar situation in December 2020, when the union, under then president Watson Duke, refused to hold elections when they were due.

Callender said he has sought legal advice and also written to the Registrar of Trade Unions about what is taking place with regard to the elections.

He claimed PSA president Leroy Baptiste and the union's central executive do not want elections.

Callender expressed concern this situation could hinder ongoing collective bargaining negotiations the PSA is involved in.

He said public officers and other workers who the union represents are still living on 2013 wages while the cost of everything continues to increase. Callender added it was unthinkable for these workers to be "going into 2025 without enhanced terms and conditions."

"Persons are getting hot, and the heat is boiling over."

Baptiste rejected Callender's claims.

He said Callender was unaware of what the provisions in the union's constitution meant.

Baptiste said the elections "will proceed as outlined by the constitution."