The United Workers of Petroleum Industry (UWPI) has a system whereby all its branches are represented at its executive committee (exco) meetings. UWPI currently has 33 branches and 4,600 members.
This helps to communicate key national and labour movement policies to everyone at the same time says 58 year old K Karthikeyan, UWPI general secretary (GS) and NTUC vice president.
He has been the union's GS since 1988.
NTUC This Week: Tell us what spurred you into union work.
K. Karthikeyan :In 1986, the year of the recession the CEO of the petrochemical company I was employed read out a memo from the Managing Director. The MD touched on the Singapore Government's stand on bonus and increments in view of the downturn. The MD informed the staff that although the company made good money, everyone's increment would be frozen due to the recession. I asked the CEO the reason for the freeze when the company was making money. He replied that the memo was written by the MD and so I went to the MD’s office and asked him for the reason. He replied it was not the company’s call but the Singapore government’s call. He also told me that that only the union can ask questions. That triggered me and I formed the Singapore Petrochemical Complex Employees Union in 1986. In 1988 I went full time and fought for the bonus for the staff not only for that year but also got it backdated to 1986. That gave the workers a lot of trust and confidence in the union.
Tell us about the future jobs in the industry.
Our workers have to get ready for Industry 4.0. When I first started as a refinery technician, there were eight people working on a plant. When you go back today, just two are working on the same plant. Everything is handled from the control room. In one company, they were able to control their firefighting equipment from a control room. Some of the companies are using drones to take readings in between tanks so as to cut down the need for workers to walk from one tank to another via a link bridge. All these are work in progress and workers have to be prepared to adapt to these changes.
How has UWPI been working with other partners in the Labour Movement?
Safety is our paramount concern. We work with our U Associate, the Singapore Institution of Safety Officers (SISO) to conduct refresher courses on safety for both existing staff and help those due to retire to be equipped with the skills and certification to take on future jobs in the safety industry. We encourage those in the 45 to 50 age group to take these refresher courses.
What drives you in your union work?
When you realise someone is happy or smiling and did not lose his job because of your effort, that satisfaction is enough for me to sleep soundly. I have a very good team in my union and my message to them always is to remember that no one is indispensable. Keep on studying and upgrading. You never know when you will lose your job. If you have the skills, you can move anywhere.
Source: NTUC This Week
