Over 650 delegates and observers from the affiliated unions and association of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) had in-depth discussions on pertinent issues, challenges and opportunities faced by the Labour Movement (LM) over the NTUC Ordinary Delegates’ Conference held from 29 to 31 October 2013.
There was recognition and widespread support from the delegates that the adoption of the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) in more sectors and more companies is the solution for sustainable wage growth; and PMEs (Professionals, Managers and Executives) outreach and engagement is the way to grow union membership and be a relevant Labour Movement. Three key thrusts for us to achieve growth in these two areas are:
FIRST - FOCUS ON STRENGTHENING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE LABOUR MOVEMENT
It is critical that the Labour Movement continues to build and develop a strong core of labour leaders by attracting more leaders to step forward to serve our workers and members; as well as keeping them in the leadership team over time. It is also important that the leadership team must be inclusive, with leaders from all ages, gender, races and sectors.
There are currently about 6,200 union leaders in the LM family. To grow and strengthen this pool of labour leaders, there is a need to adopt a “Whole of LM” approach, whereby leaders will be identified and nurtured at all three levels, namely the national level (ie NTUC), sectoral level and union level. A “development circuit” is also put in place to develop and enhance the capabilities of the labour leaders in a systematic manner with a slew of initiatives such as training programme, mentoring scheme, and opportunities to learn and contribute on assignments.
SECOND - ENHANCE COMMUNICATION WITH THE MANAGEMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCE COMMUNITY
Strengthening bipartite communication between unions and the management, particularly with the human resource community, enables the LM to make better progress in implementing PWM in companies and outreach to PMEs. The LM will be engaging bipartite partners in the whole of Singapore, not just in the unionised sector. The recent partnership with the Singapore Human Resource Institute provides us with a good platform to engage more human resource practitioners in both widespread and in-depth manner.
THIRD - BROADEN ENGAGEMENT WITH GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
As we undergo economic restructuring, the Government also has in place plans to transform the economic and business landscape, for example the development of industry clusters by the economic agencies. It is therefore important that there is greater engagement between the unions and relevant Government agencies so that there is mutual understanding and closer collaboration between both parties in making both our economy and workers future-ready.
TOWARDS LABOUR MOVEMENT 2015 VISION
The strong support from the delegates on the strategic direction and key thrusts of the LM for the next two years put us in a good stead in realising the LM2015 Vision of “Better Jobs for All”, “Labour Movement for All” and “Tripartism for All”. The next delegates’ conference, NTUC National Delegates’ Conference, will take place in 2015.
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