27 Aug 2010
General Convention Of Delegates
1. The United Workers of Electronic and Electrical Industries (UWEEI) held its 3rd General Convention of Delegates (GCD) today at One Marina Boulevard. At the GCD, UWEEI reviewed its progress and achievements over the past four years between 2006 to 2010 and charted its direction for the next four years as it continues to help workers in the electronics and electrical industries achieve a better life at work, live and play. The GCD also saw 16 newly elected members into the UWEEI Executive Council for the next four-year term from 2010 to 2014. About 500 delegates, observers, tripartite partners and staff attended the conference. Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister, UWEEI’s Chairman, Council of Advisors, was the Guest-of-Honour for the event.
Strategic Partnership Awards
2. At the GCD, UWEEI also presented the UWEEI Strategic Partnership Awards to five management partners. This award was presented in recognition of companies for their significant contributions to workers’ welfare and support towards the union’s efforts in the areas of training, employability and membership. They have also demonstrated the true spirit of tripartism as they worked hand in hand with the union to overcome challenges to create win-win solutions for all. The five companies that were conferred the awards included Carrier Transicold, Panasonics Electronics Devices Singapore Pte Ltd, Philips Electronics Singapore, Toshiba Tec and United Test and Assembly Centre Ltd. Please refer to Annex 1-1 to 1-5 for more details.
Key Achievements from 2006-2010
Managing Downturn
3. The financial crisis that started in September 2008 was the most severe downturn that UWEEI has ever experienced since its’ formation in 1981. 8,220 workers in the electronics and electrical sector were retrenched from October 2008 to December 2009, and more than 26,000 workers were affected by shorter work weeks and temporary shutdowns. Despite the severity of the recession, labour-management relations in the electronics sector continued to remain harmonious and provided the foundation for the management and union to overcome the challenges that the sector faced. The trust that was built up in good times remained high during the crisis and was key in helping the union and companies resolved the many differences together to reach win-win solutions for both workers and management.
4. UWEEI was also the first union in Singapore to release a publication, “Managing The Downturn In Singapore”, to document and share its experiences on how the tripartite partners rallied together to weather one of the worst recessions in Singapore’s history. This publication was shared widely at local and international platforms. It showed how strong labour-management relations can be a real competitive advantage for companies, especially during a crisis.
Employability
5. UWEEI also launched the wafer fabrication Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) framework in 2009 with six companies to provide a nationally-recognised skills certification for some 7,000 Professionals, Managers, and Engineers (PMEs). The WSQ framework created pathways for engineers from the six companies to be cross-trained to take on wider job scope, enabling the companies to deploy them in other work areas and thereby enhancing their competitiveness and workforce productivity. UWEEI also worked with Murata Electronics Singapore Private Limited to become the first company in Singapore to send its workers for the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) training. The Union has since worked with 57 branches to tap on SPUR, providing 9,005 workers the opportunity to upgrade their skills and employability through training. As UWEEI moves towards 2012, it is committed to work with more companies to prepare them for the re-employment legislation as well as to equip and prepare the mature employees for the change.
Service Quality
6. In its pursuit of service excellence to better serve its members, UWEEI remains the only trade union in Singapore to have met the requirements of the International Standardisation for Organisation (ISO) 9001:2000, an internationally recognised stamp of quality in service management. The Union has embarked on this journey of quality management system since 1995 to ensure consistency in its daily operations and processes as well as to provide members with quality customer service. In July 2010, UWEEI successfully completed its ISO audit and converted from ISO 9001:2000 to ISO 9001:2008.
Union Leadership
7. Leadership development and renewal continue to form an integral part of the union’s strategy to stay relevant to the needs and aspirations of workers in the electronics and electrical industries. UWEEI has constantly identified and groomed new and young leaders. Of the 389 leaders elected into the new term of office in the various branches, 27% are 40 years old and below. 38 years old Mr Ramanathan s/o Doraisamy, Branch Chairman of Mitsui Electronics Asia Private Limited, and Council Member of UWEEI Executive Council said, “Taking up leadership position in the union provides me the opportunity to contribute back to the society. It allows me to better understand the needs of workers and help them regardless of their collars, ages or nationalities. I believe I can also work closely with the union to create further vibrancy in our society."
Cheaper Better Faster
8. In support of the Labour Movement’s and Singapore’s the call for productivity growth of 2%-3% annually for the next 10 years, UWEEI furthered its commitment to become the first union to embark on an organisation-wid “Kaizen” transformation process to increase its service efficiency. It also actively engaged its unionised companies to embark on productivity enhancement projects at the workplace. To date, UWEEI has engaged 42 companies. Out of these companies, eight companies have embarked on projects to be Cheaper, Better and Faster (CBF). Another seven companies have planned to implement CBF projects in the upcoming months. These include Hitachi Chemical’s up skilling project to cross train 300 employees, Gemalto’s significant increase in productivity and improvement in product quality & services through its Lean Six-Sigma program, as well as Energizer’s training and redeployment of its workers to a new production line to produce higher valued added Lithium batteries.
Membership
9. In March 2010, UWEEI achieved the 53,000 membership mark. Its PMEs members also increased from 7,706 in 2007 to 15,588 currently as it introduced programmes and initiatives to attract more PMEs under its wing. It will continue its efforts to recruit, retain and build relationship with members while reaching out to more PMEs. The UWEEI Engineering Professional Community will be officially launched in October 2010. Through this community, UWEEI aims to be a voice for the PMEs in the electronics sector and create a community for engineers to network and bond. UWEEI hopes to bring together 60,000 members by 2012.
