About 700 participants comprising union leaders and Labour Movement partners from U Associate, U SME, U FSE, as well as NTUC social enterprises and related organisations, gathered for NTUC’s Pre-Ordinary Delegates’ Conference (ODC).
The conference was held on 12 October 2017 at the Suntec Convention and Exhibition Centre and was the first time the partners participated in a delegates’ conference organised by NTUC.
Themed “Strong, Representative and Relevant Labour Movement”, the event was held to prepare the Labour Movement for the NTUC Ordinary Delegates’ Conference in November 2017.
Relevant and Representative
In his address at the start of the conference, NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing touched on the Labour Movement’s need to continue to be relevant and representative amidst challenging times.
“Our aims have not changed. Our mission to serve the working people has not changed, but our ways to serve the working people must constantly evolve. The working people we are talking about are not just the 30 per cent rank-and-file. We are also talking about 70 per cent of the workforce, regardless of whether you call them PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians), freelancers or SME (small- and medium-sized enterprise) workers. As long as they collect a paycheck, we need to serve them. We need to focus on remaining progressive and keep reinventing ourselves, just as we have done in the past,” he said.
At various workshops, participants took stock of existing efforts, discussed current challenges and what more the Labour Movement can do to help different worker segments, including rank-and-file workers, professionals, freelancers and migrant workers.
Topics of discussion included worker-representation, network growth, training efforts and workforce mobilisation.
