Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
Mr Lim Swee Say, Secretary-General, NTUC, and Minister, Prime Minister’s Office
Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Manpower
Mr Stephen Lee, President, Singapore National Employers Federation
NTUC Central Committee Members
Ministers
Union Advisors
Delegates and Observers
Brother and Sisters from the International Labour Movement
Distinguished Guests
Brothers and Sisters
1. Welcome to the NTUC Ordinary Delegates Conference 2009.
2. When I opened the last National Delegates Conference in 2007, the mood was bullish. Economic growth was robust, job creation was strong, and unemployment was low. Our concern then was how the labour movement could bridge the income, age and nationality divides. At that conference, we endorsed our LM2011 blueprint to become a more inclusive labour movement, a labour movement for all collars, ages and nationalities.
3. However, in the last 2 years, we have seen a dramatic turn of events. We were first hit by global inflation, then followed by a global recession that was unprecedented in scale and speed. By the beginning of this year, our over-riding concern was the survival of businesses and saving jobs. We were staring at the prospect of record retrenchment and unemployment.
4. I am glad to say that we have risen to the challenge admirably, as a labour movement, as tripartite partners and as a nation.
5. When the downturn hit, the Government played a pivotal role in coming up with a $20.5 billion Resilience Package to help companies survive and save jobs. Our affiliated unions worked feverishly with companies in the frontlines to cut costs and save jobs, avoiding record retrenchment. The e2i worked tirelessly to help retrenched workers find jobs quickly, avoiding record unemployment. Our social enterprises upped their social contributions even further, and we also raised $23 million for our U Care fund to help workers severely affected by the downturn. These are remarkable achievements, thanks to the strong efforts of our tripartite partners, as well as union leaders and staff working in the frontlines.
6. What is even more remarkable, is that in the midst of all this, we never took our foot off our efforts towards LM2011. We continued to make steady progress towards reaching out to all collars, ages and nationalities, to become a labour movement for all.
7. The details of our achievements are documented in the Secretary-General’s report circulated to you earlier. We have worked very hard, and we have done an excellent job so far. Well done, brothers and sisters!
8. We could not have done all of this alone. Today, we would like to place on record the labour movement’s appreciation of the Government’s Resilience Package which has helped many companies survive and enabled many workers to keep their jobs. We would also like to acknowledge the strong support of the employers who have worked with us to cut costs to save jobs, led by example in wage cuts and resorted to retrenchment only as a last resort. We are glad that our friends from the Government and employers federation have joined us at our conference today. We are particularly honoured that our Prime Minister will be addressing us as our Guest of Honour in a few moments.
9. Before we invite the Prime Minister to address us, we would like to screen a short video on how we have pulled through together as one united labour movement, and one united nation through the deepest and sharpest recession the world has seen in 60 years. I hope you’ll enjoy the video, and I wish all of you a fruitful conference. Thank you.
