Story by: Marcus Lin
Working for the good of everyone is something that Singapore Shell Employees’ Union (SSEU) General Secretary Munirman Abdul Manaf, 37, a Line Trainer at Shell, has been doing all his life.
NTUC TW: You are a relatively young General Secretary. How did you get into the picture?
Mr Munirman Abdul Manaf: It goes way back. I learnt to be responsible for and helping others as an elder brother, and as a student I was involved in the Singapore Polytechnic Students’ Union. So, in a sense, union work is an extension of something I have been doing for many years.
I joined SSEU soon after joining Shell in 2005 and was appointed as Assistant General Secretary after being elected into the SSEU Executive Council in 2011. Soon after, at age 32, I took over as General Secretary when the previous one retired.
What challenges did you face and what do you think you have achieved so far?
I was thrown into the deep end when I took over as General Secretary as I had no guidance or mentoring whatsoever. But I just followed my heart and did what was right. One of the main things was to get the union’s priorities right, to be united and to make decisions collectively. People buy the idea of making decisions collectively and therefore we can now move easier.
Now, I can safely say that there is a core team that works harmoniously together to keep the union strong. There are more new and younger officials who gel well and more than half of the current Executive Council members are first timers in their 30s. Membership growth is also high. In fact, the unionisation rate at Shell today for bargainable staff is 94 per cent which means that for every 10 employees, 9.4 are union members.
It is important that workers see what the union can do. For example, I once helped a technician from India to keep his job after he did not return on time from home leave. The very next day, all the technician’s colleagues who were not union members immediately signed up as members.
As you are not a full-time unionist, how do you cope and what do you hope for?
Union work does take up a lot of time and I have to manage it carefully with my job as a Line Trainer training young technicians coming into the company. It helps that the company is supportive of the union in many ways. The company does not charge rental for the union’s office and contributes yearly to the union’s welfare fund. Time off is also given for union work.
NTUC has also given the union good support all these years and I personally have picked up a few skills and techniques from them that are very useful for me and I am sure I will learn more. We don't learn this via textbooks but through the experience of others. This will stay with me for a very long time.
SSEU delegates and officials are very committed and passionate people who are outspoken and not afraid to speak up in any event. Some people may have the wrong impression but if there is a legitimate question, we should ask it in order to be clear.
I believe 2016 and the next couple of years will be tough. Besides expiry of the Collective Agreement this year, collaboration with the company on job security matters and workplace safety will be the main focus of the union.
