A decision taken by the President of the Public Workers Union (PWU), Brian Grimes to withdraw a trip to Barbados might have sparked a controversy with his 1st Vice-President, Fimbar Thomas who has reportedly handed in a resignation letter.
According to a well-placed source, the PWU boss had asked Thomas to make a trip to Barbados to represent the union at a meeting of the Caribbean Public Service Association (CPSA) before the row became public.
He said that Grimes informed Thomas through a text message to hold up on the Barbados outing on the grounds that “we have to discuss something” which was related to a Social Media posting by the 1st Vice-President who expressed concern over a spat between PWU and the newly-elected Dickon Mitchell-led government on the dismissal of some workers on the sister isle of Carriacou.
He spoke of the Number Two man within the union becoming upset and allegedly issued a threat “to bring everything to the public.”
“I don’t know what he (Thomas) is going to bring to the public,” he told THE NEW TODAY.
The well-placed PWU official said that Thomas sent in a resignation letter and about three minutes after it was accepted by Grimes he sent a message announcing that he was retracting it.
“We accept that resignation,” said the pro-Grimes official on the PWU executive.
Thomas reportedly sent in his resignation letter on August 26th and it was accepted three days later by President Grimes.
The informant alleged that Thomas seemingly has a problem with the PWU Public Relations Officer (PRO) Daisy Hazzard for being “too much in the limelight” under Grimes’ stewardship.
“You know how Daisy is – she is raising the union’s profile – she doesn’t always get it right but she is out there. He (Thomas) probably has an issue with that,” he said.
A source close to Thomas quoted him as saying that he took offense to the manner in which Grimes was always praising Hazzard at management meeting and downplaying the role of other executive members.
He also commented on the standoff between Grimes and Thomas on the PWU outburst on the Congress government over the situation with a few dismissed workers on the sister isle of Carriacou.
He said that the union held an executive meeting on August 16 in which Thomas was present when the decision was taken to address the Carriacou situation through a press conference.
“The man (Thomas) was in the meeting. Everybody agreed to do the press conference. When we do the press conference Thomas started making statements on Social Media against the union after we had a unanimous decision by the Executive to speak on the matter,” he added.
THE NEW TODAY has made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Thomas on his cellphone.
However, the following was posted on Social Media by Thomas on the Carriacou situation: