I was honoured to be invited as the guest of honour for this convention almost 4 years ago – 16 January 2003. Then, I had an extremely difficult task to break the news of a possible retrenchment. PSA was facing some very challenging times, having lost 2 large customers. PSA’s cost structure was too high. Key leaders of SPWU were already aware about the possibility of retrenchment. As action had to be taken quickly, it was necessary to let the employees know.
On 24th February 2003, PSA conducted its first retrenchment affecting about 500 employees. It was a traumatic experience for everyone. At about the same time the HDB announced its restructuring. In the minds of Singapore workers, Singapore was under siege. They felt insecure. However, the retrenchment made PSA leaner, more competitive.
But retrenchment alone proved was not enough. The wage structure had to be made more responsive to market changes. It was an equally painful exercise to restructure the wage system. But it was not as headline-catching as the retrenchment.
The workers bit the bullet and accepted the changes. Throughout, SPWU played a pivotal role in ensuring the least painful experience for its members.
Fortunately, PSA managed to turnaround amidst tough competition and daunting economic conditions. SPWU ensured, through the new wage agreement, that the workers are fairly rewarded. In the recent years, PSA employees had enjoyed the fruit of labour. A record bonus of between 4.4 to 7.3 months was paid out to employees this year.
On 5th October at the 2006 Asian Freight and Supply Chain Awards, PSA was awarded the “Best Container Terminal Operator (Asia)” for the 17th time. In addition, PSA achieved another milestone. PSA Singapore Terminal handled a record throughput of 2 million TEUs in the month of May 2006. These are efforts and hard work of all workers. The workers were rewarded with $450 FairPrice vouchers for achieving this milestone.
Today PSA employees are confident of the future, but not complacent. PSA is a stronger company now.
There is one main reason why PSA had been able to turn itself around within such a short time. It is the excellent labour management relations. Such relationship is extremely valuable. SPWU was blessed with an enlightened leadership. The leadership is objectively working with PSA management to formulate a win-win outcome. It is therefore critical that SPWU’s leadership continue to work cohesively towards the betterment of its members. For this, SPWU must continue to have good leaders in future.
I am glad that SPWU always have a healthy leadership renewal process. There was a healthy contest in the recent delegates election. 4 delegates are aged 35 and below. Of the 4 young delegates, 3 are new delegates. The renewal percentage for the entire SPWU delegates was 34%.
The older generation of leaders also has a key role in ensuring the continued success of our unions. They have led the unions and workers through difficult economic periods. They understand instinctively the strengths of tripartism and how to contribute effectively as a key anchor under tripartism. These long-serving union leaders will continue to have a critical role to share their experiences and imbue the same fighting spirit in our next generation of union leaders. In this way, we will have a good balance of fresh and experienced union leadership in our labour movement. SPWU has a democratic process of leadership renewal.
There is one person in particular whom I must commend – Mr. Lee Mun Hou, ex-President of SPWU. After 30 years of contribution to the union, he graciously stepped down from his presidency to ensure the healthy and smooth transition of leadership. He took up the post of consultant to ensure that his wealth of knowledge and experience is readily available to the union when required. This selfless move is indeed exemplary. Unionists can learn from his example.
SPWU had thrived on delivering what it had set out to do. This had gained the confidence and trust of its members and management. If we can continue in the same spirit, there is good reason to be optimistic that we will continue to provide the best possible livelihood for port workers, whatever the challenges that lie ahead.
Unlike the previous delegates’ conference, today I have no bad news to convey. I am happy for SPWU, its members and PSA. I wish the incoming Executive Committee success in leading the union in the next term.
