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History of trade unions and NTUC
A trade union is an organized group of employees in a particular sector, whose aim is to negotiate with employers over pay, job security, working hours by using the collective power of the members. They are funded by subscriptions from union members, and often offer legal advice and strike pay during disputes when members refuse to work. In general, the union is there to represent the interests of its members, and may even engage in social and political activities where legislation affects their members.
During the Industrial Revolution period, workers were frequently exploited by their employers. Due to the lack of job security, long working hours and unsafe working conditions, workers formed unions to fight for their own working rights (Tan 1955).
The first trade union in Singapore was form in 1940 when the Trade Union Ordinance was enacted. After the Second World War, the union activities were mainly on political struggles for independence from the British colonial government (Tan, 2004).
The trade union movements are segregated into different unions. Examples of such unions in Singapore include National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Singapore Association of Trade Unions (SATU), Naval Base workers union and Singapore Harbour Staff Association.
In 1963, SATU was immobilized by the government on the ground that they were dominated by communists. With the legal machinery working overtime against SATU, seven SATU unions with over 50,000 members were deregistered and subsequently dissolved. Eventually the other unions slowly followed the same fate. At the same time with the success of People’s Action Party (PAP) and NTUC soon became the national trade union (Hatchard & Kessaris 2003).
Established in 1961, the NTUC is a national federation of trade unions of workers in the industrial, service and public sectors, aimed at trade unionism. During the 1960s, after the separation with Malaysia and the withdrawal of Britain, thousands of jobs were loss. In order to create more jobs, NTUC converted the British military bases for civilian use. In addition, various laws benefitting inverters were enacted to attract them (NTUC, 2007).
The employment act was then introduced and the industrial act was amended. The main objective was to restore the rights for employers to hire, fire, and transfer or deploy employees, standardize working condition and to eliminate restrictive practices by unions. Hence, the industrial relation scene became rather peaceful and the confidence of investors was restored (Tan, 2004).
Today, NTUC is a family of 63 trade unions with more than 500,000 members in support of the labour movement. (NTUC 2007)
The roles of trade unions and NTUC have remained unchanged since the early British days i.e. to improve standards of living ,ensure fair wages and working conditions and improve the quality of life for workers.(Wong, 1992) The contributions which NTUC and trade unions have in nation building can be seen in the following two developments;
NTUC and trade unions contributions in economic development
During the early industrialization period, Singapore supported unions, believing that unions provided workers with self respect and protection for their human rights. By participating in national development, trade unions would also be able to achieve a broader role and improve the lives of workers.
The National Wages Council (NVC), established in 1972 was a big boost for tripartite. By reviewing the state of the economy while also considering the concerns of employment and workers, it helped determine guidelines for wage bargaining (NTUC, 2007).
With the impact of new technologies in the 1980s, older and unskilled workers faced a high risk of lay-off. Therefore, in 1982, NTUC introduce a basic literacy and numeracy program. In collaborating with the now dysfunction Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB), it provided workers with the minimum requirement for skill training (NTUC, 2007).
With globalization and technological advances, NTUC commenced the Skill Redevelopment Program (SRP) in December 1996, aiding workers to remain employable throughout life by providing national recognized skill training and upgrading. SRP also help retrenched workers return to the working society (NTUC, 2007).
Today, the challenge of the ever evolving technologies remains. To deal with the issues, NTUC implemented the Basic Education for Skills Training (BEST) program. Administered by the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), workers were able to upgrade their skills by paying a nominal fee. Workers aged over forty were subsidized a further two-thirds. The Worker Improvement through Secondary Educational (WISE) program was subsequently launched to provide a higher level of education to qualified workers for an even wider range of skilled training courses. (NTUC, 2007)
Over the years, trades unions have also organized many employment assistance programs including job fairs to help match jobless or retrenched workers back into the working society.
NTUC and trade unions contributions in community development
Singapore does not have any natural resources. Our only �resource’ is her people. In order to achieve success in nation building, NTUC and trade unions focused on towards community development activities.
In order to improve the quality of life for the workers, NTUC established many cooperatives to solve problems faced in their everyday life. The first cooperative to kick start in 1970 was “NTUC INCOME”. They provided workers with reasonable insurance. Back in the early days, most insurance companies ignored the lower income workers and deprived them of insurance coverage. This resulted in workers being unable to support their families if they were to be injured at work. With the aid of “NTUC INCOME”, worker would be able to вЂ?have an ease of mind’ at work knowing that their families would be in safe hands should any mishap befall on them. Today “NTUC INCOME” continues to provide generous support to the social scene including arts, sports, education, healthy lifestyle, charity and trade unions (NTUC, 2007).
In 1973, NTUC launched a supermarket “NTUC FAIRPRICE” cooperative to curb profiteering in basic goods. In order to ease the stress of living of workers, “NTUC FAIRPRICE”