Towards Labour Movement 2015

1     The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) held its National Delegates’ Conference (NDC) 2011 from 6 to 8 December 2011 at the Downtown East.

LABOUR MOVEMENT 2015 VISION

2     At the NDC, the delegates endorsed the Labour Movement (LM) 2015 vision towards Better Jobs for All, Labour Movement for All, and Tripartism for All.

3     The delegates were encouraged by the achievements under the LM 2011 vision as presented in the NDC Secretary-General’s Report 2011, which focused on addressing the three divides: widening income gap, ageing workforce, and local and foreign workforce.

4     The LM has successfully repositioned itself as an inclusive Labour Movement for All CAN (Collars, Ages and Nationalities) of workers. It has made encouraging progress for workers, union members and unions by helping to keep Singapore’s unemployment rate low, increasing unionisation rate, growing membership and implementing leadership renewal through the 3-Flow model. The delegates committed to build on these achievements and strive towards the LM 2015 vision by adopting the following three key thrusts:

Better Jobs for All

5     To achieve a sustainable and inclusive broad-based real wage increase, despite what might be a slower economic growth for Singapore over the next few years, the LM will go on a three-prong offensive to realise Better Jobs for All:

a) Speed up the transformation of our economy

The LM will continue to pursue its Cheaper Better Faster initiative so that our economy and workforce can be:

- More productive so that products and services can be Cheaper 

- More skillful so that our workforce can be Better

- More innovative so that our businesses can be Faster

b) Strengthen the Singapore core in our economy and workforce

To avoid unemployment, including structural unemployment, the LM will play its part in transforming the economy and workforce. We will look at sectors to see where we can refresh, grow, strengthen, and nurture our local core workforce to grow our economy.

c) Secure better jobs for all across all sectors

The LM would aim to secure better jobs for all workers in all sectors – from contract and casual low wage workers to back-to-work women, mature workers, and professionals, managers and executives (PMEs).

Labour Movement for All

6     To be an effective voice for workers and a strong tripartite partner, the Labour Movement would need to grow in size and quality. As we work towards the LM 2015 goal of reaching a 1 million All CAN (Collars, Ages and Nationalities) 3-GEN (generation) membership, there is also a need to connect better with members.

7     At the NDC, the LM unveiled the “myNTUC” app, which will be available for download from iTunes from early January 2012. With this app, users can access latest LM-related news and information through their mobile devices.

Tripartism for All

8     Beyond the LM, there is a need to forge a more pervasive tripartism that is embraced by all unions, the whole of Government and employers. The LM will deepen and broaden this tripartite relationship of mutual trust, respect and support with all Ministries and agencies.

9     At the same time, we will continue to build upon the strong partnership with the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and reach out to many more sectors and companies so that together, we can upgrade and transform our enterprises as well as build the core Singapore workforce.

ELECTION OF NTUC CENTRAL COMMITTEE 2011-2015

10     During the NDC, 381 delegates from NTUC’s 60 affiliated unions elected, by secret ballot, the new 21-member NTUC Central Committee (NTUC CC) for the four-year term 2011-2015. The NTUC CC is the planning, policy and executive organ of NTUC that makes the decisions and takes action to further NTUC's objectives.

11     The new NTUC CC has elected Ms Diana Chia as President; re-elected Mr Lim Swee Say as Secretary-General; and elected Mr Lim Kuang Beng as Secretary for Financial Affairs. It has also re-elected Ms Nora Kang as Vice President and elected Mr K Karthikeyan, and Mr Edwin Lye Teck Hee as Vice- Presidents.

12     The NTUC CC has endorsed the recommendation of the Secretary- General to re-appoint Mr Heng Chee How and Mr Ong Ye Kung as Deputy Secretaries-General, and Ms Cham Hui Fong as Assistant Secretary-General. The list of the newly-elected NTUC CC members and office bearers is provided in Annex.

13     The new NTUC CC will push ahead to steer the Labour Movement towards the Labour Movement 2015 vision – Better Jobs for All, Labour Movement for All and Tripartism for All.

Annex