The working life of Alexis Alcide has been no bed of roses. Several times he had featured in this newspaper, following public questions about his post. And now the worse has come to pass. Recently, the President of the General Workers and Seamen Union, Alexis Alcide, came under fire from his own members for a decision to send the general secretary of the union home.

In a letter which highlights the union boss’ deficiencies in human resource skills, Alcide recommended that Cecilia Adolph "not report to work as of Tuesday April 1, 2008, until the executive committee meets to discuss the issue of your appointment." The letter was dated March 31.The executive of the union did meet. But a lot sooner than Alcide expected. The next day, an emergency meeting erupted in chaos at the union’s Sans Soucis offices, as members argued that the future of the general secretary must be decided by the executive committee. The members stormed out of a meeting on that morning in protest of Alcide’s decision.

Sources told this reporter, that Alcide’s attempt to oust the general secretary served to propel him from a ceremonial president to an executive president, hence making himself a member of the union’s staff and eligible to a salary instead of the stipend he now receives. But the union executive voted to reinstate Adolph. Days later, the STAR received word that Alcide had been stripped of privileges allowing him to use the company vehicle "as if it were his personal vehicle."

Then came the complaint from the union’s members that their president’s attitude and demeanor was unacceptable and was the main reason for the decision of Almond employees to shift their representation to the National Workers Union. Now, the union boss—who is yet to disown claims that he is the same Alexis Alcide fired from the judiciary—has been forced out of the Seamen’s Union, in a meeting that took place on Monday evening.

"The president has been removed from the presidency of the Seamens Waterfront and General Workers Union and the reason for that is because of the numerous complaints that we have been receiving from the branches. To the effect that the president is really acting contrary to the interests of the union," Adolph told reporters on Tuesday. She added that any executive member should not put "self before the members." The executive found Alcide in breach of rule 33 (j); which states that "anybody acting contrary to the interests of the union can be suspended or fired."

But Alcide didn’t back down without a fight! Adolph explained that "the president was given the opportunity to resign peacefully." "We made the point to him and asked him to leave and he said that he was not resigning; he had to think about it. But we realized that that would have taken some time and the executive was really adamant that this matter should be dealt with right away.

"The whole executive felt that this was the right decision to make in order to keep the union from collapsing and in order to keep the union alive and well," she said. Adolph explained that Alcide was the main reason the union lost the pole to remain the Almond workers’ representative. She said, "One of the reasons that came out strongly to us is that they were displeased with the attitude of the president. They had a problem with the way the president was treating them as members of the union."

On Tuesday—two days before Labour Day—a press release notified union members and the public "that Alexis is no longer authorized to do any transaction on behalf of the union." The release was signed by the same union staffer Alexis attempted to dismiss, just 20 days ago. Did someone say karma?