Fiesp has war of versions on the dismissal of Josué Gomes – 01/20/2023 – Market

Fiesp (Federation of Industries of São Paulo) comes to the end of this week in the midst of a kind of war of versions about the removal of its president, Josué Gomes. For the opposition, he is no longer president of the entity, while his allies see illegal maneuvers to force him out.

This Friday (20), already at the beginning of the night, unions linked to the federation began to receive a correspondence by email informing that the vice-president Elias Miguel Haddad took over the interim presidency of the entity.

According to the text to which the Sheet had access, Elias Haddad informs that he took over as a result of the decision taken at the extraordinary general meeting held on the 16th, when the council of representatives, “after listening to the defense arguments and rejecting them, decided to remove Josué Gomes from office”.

A leader allied with Josué said that he found the president’s replacement statement strange, as it was signed by Elias Haddad himself. Fiesp was approached, but did not respond until the publication of this text.

Earlier, the organization had confirmed a schedule for Josué Gomes scheduled for next Monday (23). On Thursday, presidents and representatives of trade unions at Fiesp began to receive an invitation from Gomes to a meeting to form a “committee to improve governance.”

In another section, the text of the invitation states that “Fiesp’s management values ​​strict compliance with its bylaws and good coexistence among the peers that make up the institution. In this way, it will spare no effort to pacify the entity and returns its focus to the issues relevant to the productive sector and the country’s reindustrialization process.”

At the assembly on the 16th, there was a suggestion for the creation of a working group with the unions to discuss improvements in Fiesp’s management. In the invitation he sent, Josué Gomes says that he was committed to the proposal and that, therefore, he wanted to discuss with the unions who would participate, the number of members and the term of validity.

According to union leaders who received the statement, Elias Haddad informs, in the statement of his inauguration, that next Monday’s meeting is cancelled. “We also inform you that it will not be possible to hold the meeting called for next Monday, the 23rd, at 5 pm, to discuss the format of the Governance Improvement Committee(s),” says the statement to which The Sheet had access.

He signs the statement “Acting President”.

The federation’s bylaws provide that the successor is chosen by the board within 30 days of dismissal. This new president is chosen from among the three numbered vice-presidents, as the first, second and third vice-presidents are called – Rafael Cervone Neto, Dan Ioschpe and Marcelo Campos Ometto.

Until the holding of the meeting that would decide for one of the three, the oldest vice-president, Elias Miguel Haddad, aged 95, remains in the presidency.

For delegates who were present at Monday’s assembly, the invitation to the meeting was read as a sign that Josué Gomes does not consider the vote for his removal legitimate.

A leader who asked not to be identified said he considered it acceptable for Josué to challenge the result or even take the case to court, but that he could not ignore the decision taken at the assembly.

The extraordinary plenary held on the 16th is also subject to more than one interpretation. Allies of Josué Gomes understand that his dismissal was not the object of the summons made by him in an edict published in December.

For the opposition, however, the convening of the assembly is based on the article of the statute that deals with the loss of mandate. Furthermore, a group of trade unions had called an assembly to discuss the conduct of Josué Gomes as president of Fiesp. When the entity’s president called the extraordinary plenary, they backed off and accepted that the discussion would be held on the same day.

The second assembly, where the dismissal was approved by 47 of the voters, was held when Josué Gomes and about 30 other union representatives had already left the building. Gomes’ lawyer, Miguel Reale Jr, considers that only the first meeting held on the 16th is valid.

This Friday, Josué was in Brasília (DF), on an official agenda with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) at the Planalto Palace. The two are close; Lula even invited him to take over the Industry portfolio. In the agenda of the President of the Republic, Gomes is identified as president of Fiesp.

During the week, Fiesp made its first statement on the subject. It released a note in which it states that Josué Gomes is the president of the entity and is carrying out his duties, according to the statute.

Since the crisis between the current president and union leaders dissatisfied with his management went beyond the limits of the building on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, Fiesp had not yet made any comment.