Speech by Mr Lim Boon Heng, Secretary-General, National Trades Union Congress, at the Unveiling og NTUC’ 45th Anniversary Building Decorations, held at the NTUC Centre Lobby, on 28 April 2006, at 12.30pm
President, NTUC
NTUC Central Committee members
Colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. Good afternoon to all of you.
2. The NTUC, as a labour movement, has come a long way in Singapore. The NTUC was formed on 6 September 1961, in a climate of political and industrial strife. The mission of NTUC has always been to protect workers’ interests and enhance their well-being. And over the last 45 years, we have delivered on our mission. The quality of life enjoyed by our workers today was hardly imaginable 45 years ago, and is the envy of many labour movements elsewhere.
3. We choose to work in a co-operative tripartite partnership with the Government and employers to achieve win-win outcomes. Not only do we ensure that workers are fairly treated at work, we also provide additional training support to enhance their employability, provide financial assistance to families in hardship, moderate the costs of living for them through our co-operatives, and give them access to quality recreational facilities through NTUC Club.
4. Workers like our approach. More and more workers join unions each year. Today, we have about 460,000 members, with 64 unions affiliated to the NTUC.
5. We have adopted the theme, “Together, A Brighter Future for All” for our May Day celebrations. It symbolises our belief that as long as we remain a strong, united labour movement, we will always be able to better the lives of all workers and Singaporeans. Ours is also an inclusive labour movement, and we make sure that we help those who are more vulnerable – the low-wage workers and older workers – to progress with us.
6. The Job Re-creation Programme or JRP is a key initiative of the NTUC to provide more and better jobs for low wage workers. Last year, JRP placed more than 4,600 low-skilled and previously unemployed Singaporeans in newly re-created jobs. For 2006 alone, we have already identified another 8,600 jobs for re-creation.
7. We encourage workers to upgrade themselves and take on the new jobs re-created. It is therefore fitting that just as we are unveiling our 45th Anniversary logo on the NTUC Centre today, we are also including pictures of JRP award recipients. These are all outstanding workers who have displayed a willingness to upgrade themselves and adopt a positive work attitude. They are indeed role models for all workers. Each has a story to tell.
Let me cite 2 of these
1) Nicholas Patrick Stephen, 45 years old
- Formerly a business development manager, earning $5000 per month
- Jobless after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998
- Tried in vain for 15 months to get a job
- In 2000, took up the taxi vocational licence and obtained a regular income of $2,500
- During one of the SRP training course on tourism, Stephen was excited about the opportunities it availed.
- Wanted to add value to his vocation. Signed up for the Taxi Tourist Guide Licence Course.
- During his course, made full use of the sponsored course fees, absentee payroll and lower taxi rental package.
- He lives on his personal creed that 'Knowledge is Power' and signed up to be trained to offer Medical Chaperon services.
- His desire to continually seek out new opportunities and acquire relevant skills earned him the ComfortDelGro Star Award.
- Though new, he has demonstrated that there are unlimited opportunities that further training can offer apart from the traditional way of generating income from driving a taxi. Nicholas is featured in the picture you see here.
2) Linda Cheng Chin Hua, 51 years old
- Worked at Maxtor for more than 10 years, earned $800 per month as production operator
- At urging of her union, started SRP training in a full NITEC course.
- Believed that skills acquired can prepare her for a better job in future
- Tough balancing studies, work and family. Many others on the course dropped out.
- Matters took a turn for the worse and she was retrenched in 2005. Company stopped sponsoring her course
- NTUC and her union stepped in. Made special arrangement for her to complete her course under the NTUC Surrogate Employer Programme
- Will be graduating this June with a full NITEC certificate
- Currently working at Advanced Materials Technologies on permanent night shift, earning about $1,000 per month. She is applying her knowledge and skills learnt on her current job.
- Her spirit remains high.
- Impressed by her attitude of constant re-training to meet new working requirements and perseverance in the face of difficult conditions
Nicholas and Linda are just two out of many workers out there that the NTUC is working with, to help them take on better jobs. Their perseverance and positive attitude is an inspiration to us all. We are proud to showcase such outstanding workers on our building as a shining example for all. They exemplify the workers that we have. It is this positive attitude that has kept our workforce the number one in the world for the past quarter century.
8. Today, as we launch the logo on our building, we would like to share the joy of May Day with the thousands of worker here in the Central Business District, the heart of Singapore’s commerce. Today’s launch also kick-starts our May Day celebrations. We welcome all workers in Singapore to join us for the upcoming events, which includes the May Day Carnival at Downtown East and the May Day Concert at the Padang, on 30 April.
9. On this note, I would like to wish all workers a happy May Day.
