Obbana Rajah
During his May Day address, labour chief Chan Chun Sing talked about the Labour Movement’s looking forward and importance in remaining “representative and relevant”.
In his speech, he said, “For the Labour Movement, going forth, we still abide by the two words that galvanise us. We want to stay representative of the broad middle of the Singapore workforce. We want to stay relevant to them. These two are mutually reinforcing concepts”.
As of Tuesday, Chan Chun Sing has moved on to head the Ministry of Trade and Industry, a change that comes after three years at the National Trades Union Congress.
At the rally, Chan talked about the move to stay relevant and representative. He used the new Supply Chain Employees Union that was formed on 30 April 2018 and led by ST Logistics as an example and said that, “The unions have continued to grow from strength to strength. Not just in increasing the number of branches and the number of workers. Most importantly, we also want to start new unions, and new associations in new sectors of the economy to make sure that our Labour Movement continues to stay representative”.
To stay relevant, he also emphasised upon the constant need to upgrade, “so that each and every Labour Movement leader can understand the challenges and aspirations of not just a rank-and-file worker, but also professionals, managers and executives, workers in SMEs, freelancers and self-employed, and even the migrant worker”.
Chan also shared pictures of the rally on Facebook and added, “Was glad to share at the May Day Rally this morning how we have expanded our outreach to better serve our working people, regardless of age, collar, sector and nationality. While we have made progress with even more synergistic collaborations across our own network as well with external partners, we must continue to build on this momentum and help our working people overcome challenges of both today, but more importantly, tomorrow”.
This May Day Rally happens to be Chan Chun Sing’s final address before he moves on to hold a position in the Government.
obbana@theindependent.sg