After having served in the army as a regular for five years, 33-year-old Raymond Chin entered the security industry as an operations executive in 2010. Today, he is an operations manager for Reachfield Security and Safety Management and the general secretary of the Union of Security Employees.
NTUC This Week: Tell us how you got involved in the industry and union work?
Raymond Chin: After leaving the army, I went into industries like insurance. It was only after a friend of mine recommended that I go into the security line in 2010 that I joined Reachfield.
My company was unionised in 2012. There was a nomination process and I found myself becoming a branch official of the company. To be honest, I didn’t know much about union work then.
After becoming a branch official, the union sent me for courses and I realised that the core of what we do is to better the lives of our workers.
I know many branch officials who stopped serving as they found it hard to commit to union, work, and family life. But I continued my union work because I felt that I was doing it for a good cause.
Do have a story to share that strengthened your commitment to union work?
I have plenty to share, but one that really struck me was when the union managed to give a death insurance compensation for one of our members’ family.
The deceased was a branch member from my company. He was suffering from cancer. When he passed on, his mother was all alone and needed to be taken care of.
The money, although it wasn’t a really huge amount, meant a lot to the member’s mother and helped for a short while.
I was quite new then and didn’t believe that the disbursement of the insurance could really help until I saw it for myself. And I realised that what we do as union leaders actually touch lives, and our work gives hope to not only our members but their loved ones as well.
You took over as general secretary in 2015. What are some of the things are you championing for?
The first executive committee position I had was as the assistant general secretary. I was an understudy of Sister Kalshum Mohammed Ali, who was the general secretary then. She relinquished her position as she was migrating to Australia and by default, I took over the position.
Increasing the salaries of security officers and making sure they have work-life balance is one of the things I’m concerned about. But there is still much work to be done as this can’t be done overnight.
Officers are also often labelled as low-wage workers but I don’t think we should call them that anymore. We’ve been pushing to raise their wages with the Progressive Wage Model and I hope they will move out of the low-wage group eventually.
