Brothers and Sisters, Welcome to this evening's UNITE leadership Summit.
There is a significance to this gathering of Union leaders. It all started in 2007 as a platform for ExCo leaders to come together, network and strengthen ties within the labour Movement. But this is also an occasion to show appreciation to all of you.
The response to UNITE has been encouraging. We, have grown from 300 in 2007 to. 600 as of last year and this provides an excellent opportunity to take stock of the leadership situation in various Unions, share the agenda and priorities of the labour Movement that concerns leadership development. Bro Swee Say will speak more in this area.
You have all done well as leaders in our Unions. And you have played a major role in helping Singapore ride through several crisis. The last 10 years have been most eventful in our nation's history. We had 4 major downturns - 97/98 Asian Financial Crisis, 9/11 of 2001, SARS of 2003 and last year's recession. Before 98, we only had one major crisis every 12 years - we had the 73 oil crisis and 85 recession. But the labour movement rose to the challenge each time and demonstrated how our Unity and Tripartite Approach benefit workers in the long term.
One other major achievement is in membership. It has more than doubled over this period, bucking the global trend of declining union membership. This is again the collective effort of all of U and your unions.
But what about union leadership? Could we have achieved all these without strong leaders? Obviously not! You provide the strong leadership and with this we can last from 5 to 20 years. But what after that? Surely as strong leaders we would want to go beyond that. We have the responsibility to make sure that union leadership remain strong for a long time. In order for this to happen, a healthy leadership pipeline and regular leadership flow is critical for sustained success.
The Central Committee had an extensive discussion on the topic of leadership development and renewal during the recent NTUC Corporate Planning Seminar - July this year. We agreed to strive for a more inclusive leadership which reflects the changing profile of our workforce. This means attracting more younger leaders and giving the promising and committed ones more opportunities to take on higher responsibilities.
But for all these to succeed, current leaders like you and I must support the next generation, and when the time comes, must make way for new blood. This needs to happen at all levels of the Labour Movement's leadership hierarchy. And I believe the example must be set at the very top.
I have served the Labour Movement for decades and as your President for more than: 13 years years. I have gone through hardship with the LM through thick and thin. But I cannot be here forever. At some point, the younger generaion of leaders must take over the baton and run even faster. I will reach the statutory retirement age of 62 next year. I have conveyed to Brother SG that I do not intend to contest the Central Committee election at NDC 2011. This means I will step aside as your President in order to make way for a younger successor.
At my Union level, I will also put in place a succession plan for SMMWU. I have been grooming potential successors. What I will do next year is to appoint an Acting Secretary-General. I will then guide this person, giving him or her my full backing until he or she is fully established and accepted to be the Secretary-General of The SMMWU.
As President NTue and Secretary -General of the largest Union in the labour Movement, this is a demonstration of my firm commitment to support leadership development and renewal for the long term interest and success of our labour Movement. I call on all union leaders at all levels of the labour Movement to embrace leadership development and renewal.
The best legacy of any leader, is to nurture a younger leader that can surpass the previous generation's achievement.
On this note I wish all of you an enjoyable evening.
