When SMRT workers nearly went on strike
Friday September 23, 2005
Lee Ching wern
[email protected]
SINGAPOREANS take peaceful industrial relations for granted. But
unknown to most, a strike that could have grounded thousands of
commuters nearly took place three years ago.
In a surprising revelation yesterday, labour chief Lim Boon Heng
told reporters how workers at SMRT Corporation almost went on
strike in 2002 after the management backtracked on an agreement it
had earlier signed with the National Transport Workers' Union
(NTWU).
"Singapore has been strike-free since 1986. But three years ago, we
almost had a strike in Singapore because of a disagreement in
SMRT," said Mr Lim, the secretary-general of the National Trades
Union Congress (NTUC), in a media conference on the sidelines of
NTUC's Pre-ordinary Delegates Conference 2005.
According to the collective agreement signed between SMRT and the
union in 2001, SMRT staff were entitled to a 3 per cent service
increment in 2002. But when the time came, SMRT refused to cough up
the amount.
Mr Lim said: "That made the employees so unhappy that they wanted
to go on strike. The strike was averted at the eleventh hour when
we drew the attention of the board of directors of the company to
what was happening and the matter was resolved."
According to NTWU president Mohd Yunos Awang, the dispute affected
some 3,000 workers including SMRT's station staff, train operators
and engineering staff. About 2,300 of NTWU's 15,000 members are
from SMRT.
He told Today: "After the first few rounds of negotiations, we were
informed that management refused to pay. When the workers heard
about it, they started calling us with questions and we had to
manage the situation. We were willing to compromise at 2.5 per
cent, but the management refused.
"There was a deadlock, but we, as a union, cannot stay idle. We
then told the management we were ready for industrial
action."
This got the management worried. It relented and, through NTWU's
executive secretary Ong Ah Heng, informed workers that SMRT would
pay the promised 3 per cent.
Since 1978, Singapore has not experienced any industrial unrest,
except for a two-day strike in 1986, when a branch union of the
Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Employees' Union took an
American company, Hydril, to task for anti-union activities.
Mr Lim, who was then NTUC assistant secretary-general, said at the
time: "We don't like to see our record of strike-free industrial
relations in Singapore for eight years go down the drain. But we
can't allow workers to be treated this way."
To give Singaporeans a better idea of the hard work NTUC's
industrial relations officers have been putting in behind closed
doors, Mr Lim also cited another example. The Supreme Court
recently outsourced the function of its shorthand writers to
private vendors.
"Because of the narrow interpretation of certain procedures within
the civil service, the employees were told that if they opted for a
special resignation scheme, then they are forbidden to join the
vendor that is taking over this function for this high court. So on
the intervention of the union, with the support of NTUC, this
matter was resolved in a way the majority of the employees found to
be most acceptable," said Mr Lim.
