The U Membership Breakthrough Workshop on 16 March 2013 saw Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union (SISEU) Branch Membership Specialists come together for a comprehensive understanding of membership issues in the areas of 3Rs (Recruitment, Retention, Relationship) strategy, membership challenges and developing union’s value proposition.
Organised together with NTUC’s Membership Department and Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute, the workshop was well received by the participants. The workshop focused on the importance of recruiting, retaining and building relationship with union members. Participants were very proactive in coming up with more ideas on how to better attract members and retain and build that relationship.
The participants were kept busy throughout the workshop with an intensive schedule. It comprised of an interactive workshop with group discussion and as well as a dialogue session towards the end headed by senior SISEU leaders to round things up.
Concerns and suggestions were raised by the union leaders on how to stop membership leaks, better increase unionisation rate of existing branches, and to create a sense of belonging and emotional attachment among members to achieve lifelong membership.
SISEU General Secretary Lim Kuang Beng shared with the branch officials: “Membership is the core to every union as it helps the union to effectively represent the workers. The bigger our membership base, the louder and clearer is the voice of our workers in the company.
“The membership course allows us to carry this important message across to the branch membership specialists and at the same time help to address the common challenges they are facing at the branch level. Moving forward we will continue to customise courses and engage our branch leaders at different platforms”.
SISEU Executive Secretary Sylvia Choo also stressed that the branches should work hand-in-hand with the union to strengthen the recruitment process at the branch level. SISEU shows tremendous commitment to getting the recipe right in order to increase their union membership as they battle attrition as one of the challenges.
