Story and Photo by Shukry Rashid
The Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers’ Union (SMMWU) is the largest NTUC-affiliated union in Singapore, representing almost 100,000 members and 277 branches. Its president, 57-year-old Eugene Teo, has been a union member since he joined Canon (Singapore) Pte Ltd 36 years ago as a technician. Today, he has progressed to be a manager. In SMMWU, he spent two years in the Executive Council (ExCo) before being elected president in 2014. He shares with NTUC This Week the challenges the union faces and what it is doing to address them.
NTUC This Week: You spent just two years in the ExCo before being elected president. Isn’t that a bit too fast and a big jump in responsibilities?
Eugene Teo: It may be fast, but it wasn’t a big jump in responsibilities for me. After joining the union 36 years ago, I was elected into the branch committee in 1988. Before becoming SMMWU president, I was the branch chairman for three terms. I have been a committed union leader as whenever any of my colleagues have a problem, I have never turned them down. Even when our member committed a mistake, we still have to think about his or her bread and butter. If a person has committed a mistake, it doesn’t mean that he will commit the same mistake forever. You have to make sure that he improves and we, as unionists, have to help the person. Besides thinking for our fellow members, we also have to think of our own work responsibilities. That’s why I think passion is very important because we don’t get paid for doing extra work with the union.
Are there any unique challenges to being one of those in charge of the biggest NTUC-affiliated union? Surely it must be hard to take care of almost 100,000 members.
We don’t find any difficulties with that – the more, the merrier. As long as our IR [industrial relations] team is doing their job and workers are well-taken care of, there should not be a problem. But similar to many other unions, one of the challenges we are facing is the representation of PMEs [professionals, managers and executives]. With them forming a majority of the Singapore workforce soon, we are working hard to stay relevant. Currently, the collective agreements [CAs] with our branches cover up to assistant manager’s role, and 10 per cent of the branches have a separate CA to cover PMEs above that role. We are constantly working hard to include PMEs into our fold. At the union level, we will always discuss how to upgrade and equip our union leaders with IR skills to address the needs of every worker.
What is SMMWU doing to help its members through the changing economy?
We always emphasise to our members that upskilling is very important. It is a better way of securing your job because if you don’t upgrade, you will be made redundant. Especially the mature workers, they need to accept that upskilling is lifelong if you want to continue being relevant. Even for our union leaders and branch officials, we have to remain relevant too. Last year, we set up Kaizen Co-operative Limited to enhance their union leadership skills and equip them with better tools when it comes to negotiations with the management.
The union’s current term is due next year. What are the plans for the next term?
Whether or not I will serve in the next term is for our ExCo to decide as with my current age, I won’t be able to serve a full term. A few of the other ExCo members will be flowing on by end of this term and we will be introducing new blood to rejuvenate the ExCo. Therefore, leadership succession is very important for us to work on. It is important to stress that the new leaders need to have the passion to serve, and we have to select the right person. Also, membership recruitment will always be a priority to us as without members, we have no union.
Insider’s Guide
The Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers’ Union
Date of Registration: 11 February 1959
Date of Affiliation to NTUC: August 1971
Membership: 99,753 members
Did You Know: Kaizen Co-operative Limited was set up in 2016 to uplift the technical skills of union leaders in the area of compensation management. Kaizen also provides consultancy services to enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises.
For more information, visit www.kaizen.coop.
Source: NTUC This Week
