The Sea­men and Wa­ter­front Work­ers Trade Union (SWW­TU) has elect­ed new ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers and placed branch rep­re­sen­ta­tives as gen­er­al coun­cil mem­bers.

On Wednes­day at the Min­istry of Labour's of­fice on Duke Street, Port-of-Spain the mem­bers elect­ed first, sec­ond, and third vice pres­i­dents, two more trustees, four as­sis­tant sec­re­taries, and one or­gan­is­er.

“The ma­jor­i­ty of the union is pleased with what hap­pened, we were able to do every­thing in line with the con­sti­tu­tion and we are able to move for­ward...now, we wouldn’t have this threat of de­cer­ti­fi­ca­tion hang­ing over us,” new­ly elect­ed trustee Kim Richard­son told Guardian Me­dia af­ter the meet­ing.

Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Pe­ter Mor­ris and As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Ker­trice Stu­art were present as mem­bers called for their res­ig­na­tions.

“There were prob­lems yes, but the reg­is­trar was al­so present and he was able to wran­gle Mor­ris and keep him un­der con­trol...his grouse is that he want­ed cer­tain peo­ple in the po­si­tions that he will be able to con­trol,” Richard­son claimed

The ten­sions in the union be­gan last month which led to a con­fronta­tion at the union’s hall af­ter mem­bers chal­lenged Mor­ris over the sta­tus of the union and its fi­nan­cial ac­count.

In Feb­ru­ary, Mor­ris elect­ed a “care­giv­er ex­ec­u­tive” but oth­er mem­bers charged that does not ex­ist in SWW­TU’s con­sti­tu­tion. They al­so asked for proof of in­vi­ta­tions to all the branch­es for the meet­ing in which a de­ci­sion was tak­en to re­place the old ex­ec­u­tive.

An ad­ver­tise­ment in two dai­ly news­pa­pers was al­so pub­lished stat­ing that long­stand­ing pres­i­dent gen­er­al Michael An­nisette was no longer in the post.

But on Wednes­day, Richard­son said that An­nisette was still recog­nised as the pres­i­dent gen­er­al.

“Yes there is a mat­ter pend­ing in court but un­til it is heard and a de­ci­sion is made he is still our pres­i­dent gen­er­al,” she ex­plained.

But more im­por­tant­ly, Richard­son said they can get to work and up­date the 2023 fi­nan­cials which they hope can oc­cur be­fore Jan­u­ary 2025.

“Then we will be able to hold a full Con­fer­ence of Del­e­gates where we will be able to elect ex­ec­u­tives for a full two-year term as well as up­date the en­tire union mem­ber­ship on the fi­nan­cial po­si­tion and plan our way for­ward,” she ex­plained.

Richard­son added: “Mr An­nisette is aware of what hap­pened, he con­grat­u­lat­ed us and is look­ing for­ward to work­ing with every­one."

Calls and mes­sages to Mor­ris for a re­sponse to the de­vel­op­ment went unan­swered.