Being in a position to be able to help others is what motivates Union of Power and Gas Employees’ (UPAGE) Assistant General Treasurer Salman Kamiso, 44, who is a Principal Technical Officer at SP PowerGrid Ltd.
NTUC This Week: How did you get started in UPAGE?
Salman Kamiso: The union moved very fast to get me to sign up as a member when I joined my company in 1995. In fact, I signed up within a few days after starting work. There is very strong labour-management relations existing between the union and company built up by the founding members of UPAGE like the late Mr Nithiah Nandan, Mr Nachiappan RK Sinniah and Mr Abdul Rahman Mahbob.
Because of the strong labour-management relations at SP, UPAGE is given a slot for membership drive as part of the induction programme for new employees. Being part of the younger leaders in UPAGE, we strive to maintain and strengthen the strong labour-management relations which cannot be taken for granted.
How did you become more involved?
I decided to become a union delegate and was elected in 2006 as I could see that there are things I can do to help fellow workers and represent them in workplace issues. Back then, I was part of Young UPAGE as well as the Sports Committee organising various activities for members.
There is constant guidance from senior union leaders like UPAGE President Tay Seng Chye, the earlier mentioned Mr Nachiappan who is UPAGE Emeritus General Secretary and UPAGE Executive Secretary S. Thiagarajan which makes it possible for me to perform my union responsibilities.
To help me in union work, I have attended courses at the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute and I
am in NTUC’s Care and Share Committee. I have also been appointed a trade union representative in the Supervisory Panel of REACH, a government agency that encourages and promotes public participation in shaping government policies.
You have been a union member for 21 years now. What changes have you seen?
It was more of a rank-and-file union when I first joined. But over the years there are increasingly more PMEs
(professionals, managers and executives) joining the workforce and it is the same with my company. They are better educated and have different expectations and so the challenge for the union is how to be relevant and serve them effectively.
Of course, the union’s primary purpose is to care for all levels of workers and this is always the same. But we have to keep up with the times as there are different issues and problems to deal with. One key issue now is re-employment as people are living longer and want to work longer. We also try to get our members to have a learning mindset and we create awareness of the various avenues and assistance available to upgrade and upskill.
Here again, strong labour-management relations play an important part in making possible all the union’s
initiatives.
