May Day Dinner Opening Address
29 April 2010, Friday, 715pm, at Suntec City Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hall 602
President, National Trades Union Congress
Mr John De Payva
Our Guest of Honour Brother Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development and Chairman of the Singapore Labour Foundation
Brother Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister
Brother Lim Boon Heng, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office
Brother Gan Kim Yong, Minister for Manpower
Sister Lim Hwee Hua, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, and Second Minister for Finance and Transport
Brother Stephen Lee, President, Singapore National Employers Federation
Brother Lim Swee Say, Secretary-General, NTUC
Members of Parliament
NTUC Central Committee Members
Distinguished Guests, Brothers and Sisters
Good Evening, and welcome to the May Day Dinner 2010.
Tonight, we kick off our May Day Celebrations in a much more upbeat mood than last year. The obvious reason, of course, is due to our unexpectedly quick rebound from one of the most severe downturns in recent history.
The not so obvious reason, at least to some of you, is that 2009 marked yet another proud chapter in the Labour Movement’s history. The tripartite partners, and all our brothers and sisters from the Labour Movement rallied strongly and fought together, united in purpose. We were hoping to avoid record retrenchment, we ended up achieving this by a good margin. We were hoping to avoid record unemployment, we ended up achieving full employment by the end of the year.
Once again, we have demonstrated to the world that tripartism in Singapore is unique and effective. Again we have demonstrated what a strong and united Labour Movement can achieve, once we put our minds to it. Thank you, Brothers and Sisters, for weathering the storm, and fighting the good fight together.
It is therefore appropriate that we will be honouring the contributions of exemplary individuals and companies through our May Day Awards tonight. Over 70 awards will be given out this evening. For the very first time, we will be giving out the Plaque of Commendation (Star) award to Murata Electronics Singapore Pte Ltd, and PUB, the national water agency. They have continued to make significant contributions towards good industrial relations, workers’ workfare and welfare, and NTUC’s initiatives, after receiving the Plaque of Commendation (Gold). Well done, Murata and PUB!
In addition, because of the exceptional efforts of unions, management and companies last year, we have also included a special UPTURN THE DOWNTURN AWARD this year. This award is a one-time appreciation given to companies, management and unionists for their outstanding partnership with the Labour Movement, in achieving positive breakthroughs during last year’s global financial crisis. 15 recipients will receive the Upturn the Downturn Award this evening.
Tonight’s dinner is also a fund raising dinner for the Labour Movement’s U Care Fund this year. I would like to thank all of you for your generous contributions. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the top 3 sponsors towards May Day Celebrations: the Singapore Labour Foundation, NTUC FairPrice and NTUC Club.
In fact, the Singapore Labour Foundation, or SLF, has consistently supported the Labour Movement’s key initiatives over the years, through thick and thin. These include: union leadership and industrial relations capability development and assistance for lower-income union members. In addition, SLF’s support has also enabled the Labour Movement to pilot new initiatives. For example, SLF contributed generously to the start-up of NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute, or better known as e2i.
It is therefore our privilege to have the Chairman of SLF, Minister Mah Bow Tan, here with us this evening as our Guest-Of-Honour. Without further ado, it is now my great pleasure to invite Minister Mah to deliver his address.
