President of NTUC, John De Payva,
Secretary-General of NTUC, Lim Swee Say,
and members of the NTUC Central Committee,
Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean,
Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong,
Minister Lim Hwee Hua, Prime Minister’s Office and
Second Minister for Finance and Transport,
and parliamentary colleagues,
President of SNEF, Stephen Lee,
Minister Lim Boon Heng, and my fellow directors on the
board of the Singapore Labour Foundation,
Comrades, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am happy to be here with all of you to celebrate May Day. There is indeed much to celebrate.
Last year, we were in the midst of the global financial crisis, the Singapore economy was weak, unemployment was high, and prospects were uncertain. Indeed, at the May Day Rally, PM Lee said that it was the most difficult May Day that we have ever celebrated.
Now, Singapore's economy is making a remarkable turnaround. MTI has upgraded its growth forecast to 7-9% this year, up from 4.5-6.5%. Unemployment rate has fallen to 2.1% in Dec 09, from a high of 3.4% in Sep 09. We have weathered the storm, and emerged more confident and positive about the future. We have in place the blueprint to transform our economy in the medium term, to become more innovative and productive, to create new jobs and upgrade existing ones.
There are many reasons why we have been able to rebound so quickly. But the most fundamental and abiding one is the deep level of mutual trust and understanding between government, employers and unions. The tripartite partners found the solutions quickly and implemented them smoothly, whether it was Jobs Credit, SPUR or the U Care temporary relief hardship assistance. The Labour Movement led by NTUC was in the forefront working tirelessly to Upturn the Downturn. The Labour Movement discussed with employers how to cut costs and save jobs, persuaded workers to accept shorter work weeks and temporary layoffs; motivated workers to go to the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) for training, and provided timely ground feedback to government. If anyone thinks that was easy, just look at the situation in many other countries, where government, employers and unions were locked in conflict, unable to take difficult decisions because they simply did not trust one another.
Many of the union leaders here tonight braved the economic recession, rallied workers and kept their morale up. I would like specially to congratulate the May Day award winners, who are recognized for your leadership during the downturn.
Over the years, I have been involved with the Labour Movement in various capacities. I have had the privilege to interact with union leaders, to observe them at work and play, and to learn from them. In the process, I have come to appreciate the role they play in fighting for a better life for workers. I have come to admire their qualities of honesty and sincerity, of walking the talk.
My first close encounter with the Labour movement was when I was with Singapore Bus Services in the late 70’s. I worked with Union leaders like Ong Ah Heng. I had to negotiate with him on many issues – salaries of drivers and conductors, split shift allowances, double decker allowances, working conditions, disciplinary actions etc. I learned that to win trust you have to gain respect. That is why I decided to learn how to drive a bus so that I can appreciate how difficult it is to park a bus while trying to double-declutch in reverse. I learned how to negotiate hard and fair, how to give and take, how to achieve win-win solutions. I also learned how to swear in Hokkien! Then as Chairman of NTUC Comfort in the 1980’s, I came to know our taxi drivers and their representatives, understood what their life is like, worked with them to make conditions better. And improved my Hokkien, although my vocabulary is still limited to a few choice words.
In the 1990’s, as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the then Singapore Institute of Labour Studies (SILS), now known as the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute (OTCI), I was able to see at first hand the motivation and drive of our union leaders, the extent they were willing to go to improve their skills, upgrade themselves. They were walking the talk, doing what they were urging their fellow workers to do. I understand that union leaders continue to participate actively in programs organized by OTCI, equipping yourself with the necessary knowledge and skills to hold discussions with human resource managers, to organize and lead workers, and to give inputs to national policies, and help explain them to workers. Your contribution of time and energies to represent workers, and support companies and Singapore to be competitive is very much appreciated by the government, and enlightened employers.
Now as Chairman of the Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF), I am privileged to be able to play a part in further strengthening and supporting the Labour Movement. The government strongly supports the development of a strong and effective Labour Movement. This is because the programs and impact of the Labour Movement extends beyond union members to the working population as a whole.
Our Labour Movement has been outstanding, in the breadth and depth of its work and its reach. It has been able to effectively galvanise workers during bad times because it has been relentless in building up its capacity to serve workers during good times. In addition to developing union leaders, the Labour Movement has also been putting in place a sound framework to raise workers’ employability. e2i and NTUC LearningHub did not exist in the recession caused by the dot.com bust in 2001 or SARs in 2003. e2i and NTUC LearningHub were built up over the last few years and played a critical role in the past year in coaching, training 50,000 workers, and matching them to suitable jobs. The Labour Movement’s programs to bring women back to work, keep older workers reemployed, and recreate low-paying jobs have helped to build a more inclusive workforce.
The Labour Movement’s activities to deepen engagement with communities of youths, young working adults, and families help build a more cohesive and resilient society. The fact that union membership continues to grow healthily is evidence that the Labour Movement has attracted many believers and is firmly rooted in our society. In most other countries, union membership is either stagnant or declining.
The SLF is pleased to be able to support the Labour Movement. In the last 5 years, SLF has contributed about $150 mil to serve workers and members in partnership with the Labour Movement. SLF’s contributions support a broad range of programs for workers and union members. I would like to highlight three areas.
Firstly, the SLF helps to enhance the employability of workers. SLF and NTUC jointly set up e2i in 2007. e2i is funded by both SLF and WDA, under the Job Re-creation Programme and SPUR. In 2009, e2i officers worked long hours to serve 50,000 workers, both rank and file, and managers and executives. Among those who were helped was Mr Chia Boon Seng, a 50-year old Wharf Operations Supervisor at the port when the downturn struck. The sharp reduction in cargo volume meant that Boon Seng was assigned work only twice per week, suffering a sharp fall in earning. Boon Seng decided that this was not sustainable and with the strong encouragement and support of his brother, Boon Seng underwent a 6-week program with e2i to acquire new electrical wiring skills. It was a tough transition to a new occupation but Boon Seng succeeded. I am glad that Boon Seng is now happily employed through an e2i job fair, and earns about 70% more than before the downturn.
In the next few years, we will have to step up skills upgrading of both rank-and-file workers and managers and executives in order to raise productivity. We will all have to learn to do the same things cheaper, better and faster, as Swee Say puts it. The gains from productivity improvements must then be shared with workers fairly.
I learnt as Chairman of the National Productivity Council from 1986 to 1991 that increasing productivity is not a glamorous or a one-off effort. It is a long, hard, continuous process of steady improvement. There is no shortcut and past performance is not a guarantee of future success
Let me tell you the story of Toyota. Toyota enjoyed great success in the 80s, reaping productivity improvements by implementing the Kaizen philosophy and honing the just-in-time production system to perfection. Toyota put in place continuous, conscious improvements in the work process, involving all employees from the assembly line workers to the CEO. Toyota's focus on steady growth brought it to the top tier of carmakers. In the 2000s, however, Toyota abandoned its own philosophy of steady, disciplined growth to pursue aggressive expansion and cost-cutting initiatives, to maximise profits. The pursuit of profit compromised quality and reliability, and workers were not sharing the gains. As a result, Toyota had a few good years of profit followed by record losses during the downturn. It also faced product quality issues and loss of workers and customer loyalty. You may have read of the massive recalls of Toyota vehicles in the US. Today, Toyota is trying to return to its original core values of strong commitment to productivity and quality. It is a powerful lesson for all of us, companies as well as countries. That success is not guaranteed.
Secondly, the SLF supports the development of union leadership and staff capacity to serve workers at the company level. The industrial relations work on the ground is led by a dedicated corps of over 6,000 union leaders and about 200 staff, many of whom are present at tonight’s dinner.
SLF’s support enables motivated leaders such as Mr Muhammad Azli Sahari from the Chemical Industries Employees’ Unions (CIEU) to develop his skills to take up heavier leadership responsibilities. Mr Azli, now 37 years old, started as a leader in a company union branch five years ago. He volunteered to become a branch leader because he wanted to serve his fellow workers and do the best for his company. OTCI supported Azli’s development from being a branch leader leading 100 members in his own company, to becoming an Executive Committee member within 4 years. Now Azli is a member of the 17-person executive committee of CIEU, which has 15,000 members.
Thirdly, SLF provides financial relief to lower income union members through the U Care programmes of the Labour Movement, such as U Stretch vouchers, Back to School Programme, and the U Care Immediate Assistance programme.
One of the recipients of the U Care Fund last year was Mr Gurnaya Singh aged 57 who worked in the Panasonic refrigeration company. The company had to shut down temporarily. Mr Singh’s mother had to undergo a knee operation. Mr Singh was very glad to receive financial assistance to pay part of the medical expenses.
Going forward, the SLF will continue to meet the evolving needs of the workforce and union members, in partnership with the Labour Movement. In addition to the existing three priorities, SLF will also be stepping up our focus in two areas. Firstly, SLF and Labour Movement will expand the impact and scale of the NTUC social enterprises to better meet the needs of working families. The twelve social enterprises of the Labour Movement today serve more than 2 million customers. The larger social enterprises like NTUC FairPrice and NTUC Income are well known household names. They have been able to make a more substantial impact than the smaller ones. Size matters. Hence SLF will focus on growing some of the more high impact and high potential social enterprises, for example NTUC First Campus and NTUC LearningHub.
Secondly, SLF will support the Labour Movement’s plans to serve the needs of managers and executives, even as we continue our strong support for lower-wage workers. The recent recession showed that managers and executives are not spared from the impact of economic cycles. Many lost their jobs, and took a long time to find a new one. Many have joined the union as they realize that they too need the support of the union to represent their needs, get them a fair deal, and support them in their professional development and training.
Let me reaffirm the commitment of the SLF to fulfilling our mission to develop the Labour Movement, one that contributes to tripartism, economic growth and social cohesion. I am confident that the Labour Movement will become even more dynamic, inclusive and relevant to the workforce. The Labour movement can count on the SLF’s support. SLF’s contributions will increase in tandem with the expansion of the Labour movement programs that make a substantial impact, so long as SLF remains financially healthy and sustainable.
Finally, I would like again to congratulate all recipients of this year’s May Day awards, including Mr David Wong and Mr Goh Chee Wee, who are both receiving the Distinguished Service Star Award and they have both served on the board of the SLF. I have known David and Chee Wee for many years, and know they fully deserve this award. I am honored to be here to celebrate May Day with all of you tonight. I wish all of you an enjoyable evening. Happy May Day!
